Two terrific new boxes from Australian Eloquence allow us to revisit early recordings by well-known names. The first is the Dutch conductor Edo de Waart, 80 this year, who was Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 1993 to 2003 and also responsible for the premieres of many works by John Adams, including the opera Nixon in China. De Waart, who trained as an oboist, began his conducting career leading the Netherlands Wind Ensemble. This Dutch ensemble was formed in 1961; De Waart took over as conductor in 1966, having been assistant to Leonard Bernstein in New York and Bernard Haitink at the Concertgebouw. They recorded together until he left to expand his international profile in 1975. This edition covers the recordings they made for Philips during those years (and a couple later without de Waart).

While the ensemble embraced a casual look by performing in everyday clothes and commissioned contemporary works (such as De Staat by Louis Andriessen), their recordings were anything but casual and certainly not avant-garde. This set contains eight full discs of Mozart: all his wind Serenades and Divertimenti, the Grand Partita,...