The label Auris Subtilis has edited ten of the symphonies by Carl Philipp Stamitz (1745-1801) and presents them in world premiere recordings by the Ensemble Amadeus in their debut album, in a double-CD set with a musicological introduction by Alexander Keuk.

Carl Philipp Stamitz is one of the outstanding composers of the second generation of the “Mannheim School” which was first developed by his father, Johann Stamitz. In addition to his brilliant and highly-accomplished compositional craft, he was esteemed as a virtuoso on the violin, viola, and the viola d’amore, composing many concerti and pieces of chamber music for the latter instrument just as it was gradually disappearing from musical life.

Carl was a second violinist in the court orchestra (Hofkapelle) from 1762 to 1770. In 1770, Stamitz moved to Paris with his younger brother Anton, and became the court composer of Duke Louis de Noailles. It was also here that the symphonies presented on this album were composed.

Ensemble Amadeus was founded by Normann Kastner with eight musicians in 1997, but the orchestra now comprises more than 30 highly motivated amateurs and a few professionals. It specialises in 18th-century music, cultivating a repertoire of standard works from the classical period as well as composers of the so-called second rank who have largely vanished from the awareness of today’s concert audiences.