These live recordings of Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and CosÏ fan tutte are a fine tribute to celebrate 40 years of La Petite Bande. They have released an Anniversary Series to mark the oustanding achievement of this highly regarded Belgium-based ensemble.

In contrast to most of his composing colleagues, Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was never a celebrated virtuoso on any instrument, but his skill on the harpsichord was certainly sufficient for him to be successful as a soloist in his own concerts as the Eszterházy's Kapellmeister. Both harpsichord concertos recorded here probably date from his early period as Eszterházy's conductor. The CD is complemented by an early divertimento from the 1750s, which reveals a young, extremely promising composer.

The two cassations K. 63 and 99 by the 13-year-old Mozart are among his earliest surviving serenades and already demonstrate the young genius's full ability. These "occasional compositions" were evidently well received by the Salzburg public and were followed by numerous other serenades and divertimenti for festive occasions of wealthy Salzburg families and as final music until 1779. One of these follow-up commissions is the Divertimento KV 205, charming congratulatory music for the Antretter family. Sigiswald Kuijken and La Petite Bande turn this little-known "light music" by Mozart into a musical delight.

These two last symphonies by Haydn (beautifully performed here) crown a lifetime of musical experimentation and orchestral mastery. No. 103, as the title implies, begins with a drum solo–a shocking innovation at the time, and one which "excited the deepest attention" in contemporary audiences. The creepy introduction reappears just before the end of the first movement, and it's a strategy that Haydn's pupil Beethoven immediately copied in his famous Pathetique Piano Sonata. The London Symphony had a longer reach still: The finale of Brahms' Second Symphony pays affectionate homage to one famous passage, but all of this music is just as valuable for itself as for its impact on later generations.

These two symphonies were composed for Haydn's second visit to London, during the winter months of 1794-95. He knew the musicians for whom he was writing, and they were a virtuoso ensemble. Therefore these are among the largest scaled, most technically demanding among all his symphonies.

The Surprise Symphony was, before the Mozart craze of the early 1990s, the most famous piece of classical music after Beethoven's Fifth, and if it gets into some feature film it could well regain it's former position. It says something for Haydn's ability to write consistently interesting and witty music that the most popular, "named" part in a symphony (this one included) is likely to be the slow movement. In other words, Haydn is often at his most entertaining just when other composers are putting you to sleep. Symphony No. 93 also has a surprise in its slow movement–a highly scatological comment from the bassoon at the very end, followed by what can only be described as orchestral laughter.

Even after the completion of the highly praised Bach cantata series, which was released between 2004 and 2014, and in which La Petite Bande recorded cantatas for every Sunday of the liturgical year, Sigiswald Kuijken still does not let go of his great passion for Johann Sebastian Bach. He turns once again to the cantatas and presents on his new recording three works that Bach wrote for the end of January and the beginning of February, and that he performed in Leipzig at St Thomas' Church between 1725 and 1729.

‘The Time of Day’ provided Haydn with an inspiration to compose and his Symphony numbers 6, 7 & 8 collectively became known as The Day Trilogy. Celebrating their 30th anniversary, Sigiswald Kuijken and La Petite Bande are highly respected exponents of this repertoire and this recording is no exception to their consistently high standards. Carrying on with their ‘one instrument to a part’ policy, the recording is presented in a wonderfully light and airy way, allowing the music to shine through.

If you cannot imagine what Bach's five great motets would sound like as chamber music, this disc by La Petite Bande will provide an answer: they sound fabulous. With eight singers, five string players, and four wind players plus continuo, La Petite Bande's performances sound absolutely clear – even in the densest textures, every line is ideally balanced – incredibly colorful – the combinations of voices, strings, winds, and organ seem endlessly subtle – and, best of all, unbelievably expressive. Everyone's a soloist and every line is a melody, thereby making Bach's music seem more personal and intimate than usual. Of course, part of the reason for this is that most recordings of the motets, whether a cappella or accompanied, are arguably too big and heavy.

La Petite Bande recorded its set during the late 1970s and these are performances which do considerable justice to the music. Brisker tempos, lighter bass string playing and an altogether more imaginative approach to continuo realization bring these concertos alive to an extent hardly realised by I Musici. Sigiswald Kuijken, the leader and director of La Petite Bande, includes a theorbo in his continuo group and this is invariably an effective addition. Both sets field a secure and lively concertino group of two violins, cello and continuo but listeners may well find that the warmer sound and greater degree of finesse provided by the concertino of I Musici is more to their liking than the thinner, wirier textures of the other. Having said that, I should add that in matters of baroque style, as in its more highly developed spirit of fantasy, La Petite Bande offers far and away the more satisfying performances.

The two works performed here are two that have never gone out of fashion, even in the days before the Bach revival, in the darkest times for his reputation, these works were recognized as masterworks and have never been out of the repertoire. La petite bande was founded by Sigiswald Kuijken in 1972. It is a period instruments ensemble which has come to be recognized as having the highest standard of performance in Bach and other composers as well.

This two-CD album brings together the two earliest recordings by La Petite Bande. They were made in 1973 and feature landmarks in two important French forms of entertainment—comedie-ballet and opera-ballet. Performed in 1670 at Chambord, one of Louis XIV's grandest country retreats, Le bourgeois gentilhomme was the high water mark of Lully's collaboration with Moliere and was to be the last work of its kind on which the two worked together. Moliere developed the comedie-ballet from the fashionable court ballets, working the dances and music into the body of the play with unparalleled skill. Lully, himself a dancer, proved a gifted partner as the music for Le bourgeois gentilhomme reveals.

Neuer Blickwinkel Sigiswald Kuijken präsentiert mit La Petite Bande erneut eine Einspielung, die dank fundierter Recherche einen neuen Blick auf scheinbar altbekannte Musik bietet: Er führt diese Werke nämlich in einer reinen Quartett-Besetzung (zwei Violinen, Viola und Kontrabass) auf. Für Kuijken vermittelt diese Ausführung viel eher die lebendige, direkte Essenz dieser Musik als ein Kammerorchester. Mit dem Menuett KV 601 Nr. 3 bietet er zudem einen adäquaten Ersatz für den früh verlorengegangenen zweiten Satz der Serenade. Obwohl fünfzehn Jahre früher entstanden ergänzen die Divertimenti KV 136-138 hinsichtlich Besetzung, Leichtigkeit und Eingängigkeit Mozarts Eine kleine Nachtmusik von 1787 wunderbar.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and second (surviving) son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. His second name was given in honor of his godfather Georg Philipp Telemann, a friend of Johann Sebastian Bach. C. P. E. Bach was an influential composer working at a time of transition between his father's baroque style and the classical and romantic styles that followed it. His personal approach, an expressive and often turbulent one known as empfindsamer Stil or 'sensitive style', applied the principles of rhetoric and drama to musical structures. Bach's dynamism stands in deliberate contrast to the more mannered galant style also then in vogue.

Founded in 1972 at the suggestion of Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and led since its inception by Dutch violinist turned conductor Sigiswald Kuijken, La Petite Bande is surely among the finest of early music orchestras with a discography ranging from Lully through Mozart. Among the group's most successful projects, however, have been recordings of Bach's sacred works, particularly the 1985 Mass in B minor and this 1987 St. John Passion. Both are superbly performed with excellent solo and choral singing and outstanding orchestral playing, but both are distinctly dissimilar in tone and effect. The conductor makes the difference.