Vienna’s music scene at the end of the 18th century was home to many renowned composers, including Paul Wranitzky, who was a respected colleague of Mozart and Haydn and was frequently tasked with providing incidental music for the considerable number of newly-written plays. The three pieces heard on this album demonstrate not only Wranitzky’s compositional diversity but a gift for symphonically conceived works featuring battle music, solemn polyphonic elements, and the popular Turkish style with its characteristic janissary percussion.

Czech conductor Marek Štilec is known as an interpreter of Classical orchestral repertoire and is a specialist in Czech Romantic and contemporary music. He has collaborated with orchestras the world over, including the New World Symphony, Ulster Orchestra, London Classical Soloists, Orchestra of the Swan, Berlin Camerata, Kammerphilharmonie Graz and Sinfonietta Bratislava. A prolific recording artist, he has made over 30 albums for labels including Naxos, ArcoDiva, cpo and Supraphon. In the field of historically informed performance Štilec has collaborated with ensembles including Czech Ensemble Baroque and Ensemble 18+. He is also the founder of the Wranitzky Kapelle and artistic director of Academy Prague Mannheim with Das Kurpfälzische Kammerorchester Mannheim.

Marek Štilec and the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Pardubice have recorded all five previous volumes in this series: ‘The Pardubice orchestra does a splendid job of this music. It is colourful, with good tempos, precise intonation, and an excellent balance of instruments. Conductor Štilec has an inherent knack for the style, and his delineation of the various movements allows for Wrantizky’s fine sense of scoring to emerge’ (Fanfare on Vol.4).

Together they have also recorded the music of Wranitzky’s contemporary Franz Ignaz Beck on 8573248, 8553790 and 8570799 and 8573249: ‘The playing is nicely nuanced, and even the slow movements have a forward-leaning flow’ (American Record Guide).

Štilec has also recorded Zdeněk Fibich’s Symphony no.3 with the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava (8574120): ‘A superb release of masterful music’ (Fanfare).

His other recordings of the works of Fibich for Naxos have won two WQXR Radio’s Album of the Week, Music Web International ’s 2013 and 2014 Recording of the Year, the 2013 Project of the Year for the magazine Hudební Rozhledy, and two Tip Harmonie 2014 awards.