Ludwig van Beethoven had been living in Vienna for three years when he began work on his first Viennese piano concerto. The present arrangement for piano and strings has been provided by Vinzenz Lachner, who was himself a highly regarded composer and international conductor. He wanted his students to be able to play piano concertos without hiring an expensive orchestra. This Lachner version went to press in 1881: "to be used for Study and for the Concert Hall".

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy married Cécile Jeanrenaud in March 1837. Even before he left on his honeymoon, he wrote to his friend Karl Klingemann that he would like to compose a piano concerto for his subsequent concert tour of England (his fifth!). It was very similar in form to his first piano concerto, with three movements running into one another without a break. At the same time, he was already greatly taken by the lively "piano fireworks" in the finale. The version for piano and string orchestra is by Paul von Waldersee.

Strongly associative features characterise the piano pieces of Günther Franz Kasseckert, a passionate musician who gave musical form to his deep love of woodland and nature and his profound knowledge of the human psyche (he was a psychologist by profession) again and again throughout his life. The piano pieces by Kasseckert receive their world premiere in this live recording.