»The delivery of this brainchild of mine caused me the biggest pains and the biggest trouble of all,« Beethoven said about »Fidelio«, his only opera, originally titled »Leonore«. He spent nine years brooding intensively over this opus, creating four different overtures in the process. The third one is from 1806. It is a musical sketch of the narrative, highlighting moods and fluctuations in vibrant orchestral colours.

Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante is created in Paris. From letters to his father, we know that he composed it for four wind soloists. Their authenticity, however, is controversial: There is only one copy of it from 1869. Nevertheless, the Sinfonia is typical for Mozart, it is played regularly and captures audiences time and again.

Born in 1804, Louise Farrenc is the daughter of a Parisian family of artists that supports her career path. She would be the first woman to be appointed to a professorship of piano at the Conservatoire de Paris, but faced significant barriers nonetheless. Apart from her chamber music compositions, Louise Farrenc wrote three symphonies. Dating back to 1845, her second symphony, despite its partly romantic expression, stands in the tradition of Ludwig van Beethoven.