City of London Sinfonia - Wagner, Haydn, Barber & Mozart

Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, one of his few non-operatic works, is a symphonic poem composed as a birthday present to his wife after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869, and first performed as a surprise when she woke. The work incorporates a German lullaby and was itself used in part for the love scene in Wagner's later opera Siegfried.

Joseph Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in E flat major was written in 1796, for his long-time friend Anton Weidinger who had reputedly developed a keyed trumpet. Before this, the trumpet was commonly valveless and could only play a limited range of harmonic notes by altering lip pressure. Haydn's concerto exploits to the full the capabilities of the new instrument.

The Adagio for Strings is Samuel Barber's best-known piece, a favourite in films from Amelie to Platoon for its wave-like emotions. There is a rare depth of texture and richness to the melancholy sound, a carpet of strings. Begun in 1936, it has become not only his most popular work but an unofficial American anthem of mourning, played after the deaths of Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy. The original inspiration of a stream growing to a river gives overall shape to the work: a long arch of building and waning sound.

Mozart wrote his final Symphony No 41 at the height of his short creative life. Music lovers can only wonder what might have been, had he lived to build on the wonders he produced in this symphony. Perhaps more than any other of his symphonies, Mozart expresses an extraordinary breadth of emotion, colours and energy all within the setting of the Classical symphonic form. It has rightly become one of Mozart's most-loved orchestral works.

City of London Sinfonia plays with absolute engagement. Anna Picard, The Independent.