For a few decades in the 18th century, Mannheim shone as a cultural Eldorado. Elector Carl Theodor built a huge palace in his residence at great financial expense and did not lack for anything musically. In a letter to his son Wolfgang in 1777, Leopold Mozart wrote about Mannheim, 'from whose famous court the rays, as from the sun, spread through all of Germany, indeed through all of Europe.' The Mannheim orchestra was famous for its top musicians and caused a furore with its so-called 'Mannheimer Walze.' Mannheim was also pioneering in the development of the oboe as a solo instrument, and one name in particular stands out here: the oboist Ludwig August Lebrun. The Mannheim oboe concertos presented in this recording were probably written for him by Holzbauer, de Winter, and Eichner, and one of them was written by Lebrun himself.
