Martin Owen is recognized as one of Europe's leading horn players and performs as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the world. He is currently principal horn with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, and the Haffner Wind Ensemble. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed all of these pieces for the virtuoso horn player Joseph Leutgeb (or Leitgeb) (1732-1811). Leutgeb was born in Vienna and made a name for himself as a soloist before moving to Salzburg, where Mozart met him. Martin Owen writes: "In this recording, we have attempted to convey a more youthful vigor in the earlier works (even those by Joseph Leutgeb himself, for whom they were written), compared to the Concerto in D, which in many respects is a swan song for both the soloist and the composer. I hope our performance demonstrates greater depth of tone and a greater degree of maturity. I was intrigued by the fact that in 1990 at a Sotheby's auction, sixty measures of music were discovered that were later confirmed as belonging to the Concerto Rondeau, K.371—when I was young, I knew the work only without these measures and had always felt there was too abrupt a transition to the next section! Now it makes perfect sense."