Ernst Wilhelm Wolf spent thirty years as Court Kapellmeister in the German artistic centre of Weimar in Thuringia. Until today his importance has seemed to lie in his rôle of Court Kapellmeister rather than in his creative work. With his compositions for piano and Singspiel his orchestral works have had little mention, a fact that it is hoped to remedy with the present recording.

Ernst Wilhelm Wolf was baptized on 25th February 1735 at Grossen Behringen near Gotha and had early experience as a keyboard-player. His brother Ernst Friedrich, city organist at Kahla on the Saale, influenced and taught his younger brother. Wolf took his first independent step at school in Eisenach, where he quickly rose to the position of choir prefect. At this time we know that he was already active as a composer, with several arias and motets. Yet it was his period at school in Gotha that proved musically formative for him