Reinhard Goebel, founder and director of Musica Antiqua Köln (1973-2005) and holder of a chair for performance practice at the Mozarteum Salzburg (2010-2025), continues to work tirelessly on the creation and development of "new" 18th century repertoire. In May 2025, he returned to the masterful arrangement that the Munich composer Franz Gleißner made of Mozart's "Gran Partita" K. 361 around 1800. Current performances and a modern recording were both desired and expected. Goebel performed the works to be heard on this CD in May 2025 together with the Munich Radio Orchestra during the Residenz- und Schlössertournee in Amberg, Ansbach, Dachau and Oettingen and recorded them beforehand in Bavarian Radio's Study 1.

The "Gran Partita" KV 361, one of his most magnificent works, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for the former Mannheim orchestra, which had relocated to Munich following the Elector's forced dynastic move. The work, unusually scored for twelve wind instruments and double bass, is rarely heard. When it was due to go to print in 1800, it was published in an arrangement for a traditional orchestra, masterfully completed by the Munich composer Franz Gleißner on behalf of the music publisher. Reinhard Goebel has already repeatedly championed this powerful arrangement, which was published under the title "Sinfonia concertante" - now he has done so again on the podium of the Munich Radio Orchestra. He writes: "How dull and empty a world would be without arrangements. There can be no reasons AGAINST arrangements - the reasons FOR arrangements, on the other hand, can be manifold and complex."

The composer and conductor Christian Cannabich raised and trained the famous Mannheim orchestra with almost military discipline. The young Mozart was fascinated by both the concertmaster and the orchestra. "One would like to imagine," writes Goebel, "that Mozart may have played the 'Sinfonia concertante' together with or against Cannabich." This concert piece for two violins and orchestra "is, in violinistic as well as compositional terms, an end point that could not be surpassed by the veteran forces of the Mannheim school, but above all could not be developed further."