Much of the ‘life’ and personality of Webern remains largely enigmatic. He was a compulsive tinkerer, and his sketchbooks teem with corrections, redrafted beginnings and revised revisions. Webern assigned opus numbers to only 31 of his works, the great majority of which are miniatures of short duration in which conciseness and concentration of expression are paramount. This first volume in the Naxos Robert Craft Webern Collection brings together the Six Pieces, Op. 6, an early composition for large orchestra that has become Webern’s most popular work, the Concerto for 9 Instruments, his most popular chamber-music opus and the Symphony, which has become the best known of Webern’s twelve-tone pieces.