Erato Records was founded in 1953 with its initial mandate to promote French Baroque music. Since that time, the label has created some of the greatest recordings we now enjoy and has established some of the most notable artists in classical music including Jean-François Paillard, Maurice André, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Marie-Claire Alain and Hélène Grimaud.

Kurt Redel began his career as a flutist and eventually turned his career toward conducting. In the mid 1950s, it was Redel who rediscovered Johann Pachelbel's Canon and first recorded it for Erato, in addition to creating world premiere recordings of other Baroque composers. He is known, much like Leopold Stokowki, for his transcriptions and arrangements of the works of Bach.

Here, on one CD, is a wonderful survey of Bach performed by the Chamber Orchestra Pro Arte of Munich, led by Redel. It includes the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," the Air on a G-String and the monumental Passacaglia in C minor, a musical form that Bach himself found so imposing that he only composed one in his lifetime. This is Bach in all its architectural splendor and Redel gives new life to these impressive works — works that Bach may have scored for the modern orchestra had it existed during his lifetime.

The Erato triptych continues with another classic from the label. Fanfare, Symphonies et Suites features Jean-François Paillard leading his own chamber orchestra in works by two French contemporaries, Jean-Joseph Mouret and the more famous Jean-Baptiste Lully. This recording, from 1976, may be responsible for putting the famous Mouret Rondeau on the musical map to today's listeners. This short fanfare has come down to a generation of TV viewers as the theme to Masterpiece Theatre. It is a spirited album that still sounds as fresh and alive as when it was first released.

Finally, a delightful album of four concertos for mandolins completes the offer. I Solisti Veneti, under the direction of Claudio Scimone, presents works of four Italian composers who flourished during the second half of the 18th century, Domenico Caudioso, Giuseppe Giuliano, Gian Francesco Eterardi and Gaspare Gabbellone. Each evokes the charming style of mandolin writing from this period in music history.

As a group, this is great bounty of music from Erato represents the well known and the soon-to-be-discovered.

—J. Maxwell Fletcher