Born in Germany, Joseph Martin Kraus made his career in Sweden, where he served the court as a composer and conductor. He was able to absorb the latest in continental musical and theatrical trends when King Gustavus III, a great patron of the arts,sent him on a grand tour of Europe. This took him throughout Germany, Vienna, Italy, England andFrance, where he met major figures of the period such as Gluck and Haydn.

Kraus’s symphonies feature the unexpected and the dramatic and it is no surprise, therefore, to find many forward-looking stylistic devices that anticipate music of the next century. This CD forms part of a complete cycle of Kraus’s Symphonies on Naxos. Volume 1 (Naxos 8.553734) was awarded prestigious Cannes Classical Award in January1999 by a jury consisting of the world’s leading classical music journalists.