As a dedicated Early Music label, Das Alte Werk embraced the period instrument revival almost from its inception, signing up five musicians who were to play an influential role in the development of historically informed performance over the next 25 years. They were the recorder and flute player Frans Bruggen; organist, harpsichordist and scholar Gustav Leonhardt; cellist, viola da gamba player and conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt; cellist Anner Bylsma and violinist Jaap Schroder. The name Das Alte Werk became synonymous with all that was at the forefront of scholarly research and period-instrument practice.  Among the most important of the younger generation of musicians signed by the label in the 1990s, were Il Giardino Armonico, Concerto Koln, Tragicomedia, Chanticleer and the harpsichordist/fortepiano player Andreas Staier. All can be heard within this superb 51-CD collection.