Franz Lachner had every reason to be proud of his career. He was an organist in Vienna at the age of twenty, then principal conductor at the Karntnertortheater, and finally musical director in Munich until Richard Wagner conquered the city. Lachner certainly had nothing to hide. At that time, the pensioner had already completed a considerable part of his oeuvre, including the opera Catarina Cornaro (cpo 777 812-2), as well as the eight symphonies that the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra in faraway Taiwan have been entrusted to record. In these works, Lachner proves to be the missing link between the aftermath of the Classical period and the highpoint of Romantic era - an astonishing phenomenon emphatically demonstrated by the Elegy in the form of a Symphony in D minor. It is comprised of three intertwined parts that explode established forms. Their powerful, melodious colours open up vistas that urge us on and can only be restrained by a final fugue. The following nine interlude pieces reveal a man well acquainted with Viennese theatre. No one with such a wealth of comic, elegiac, military and melancholic pieces at their disposal need fear any compositional eventuality.