When he became music director in Cologne after the war at the age of thirty-three, Günter Wand insisted from the start on the inclusion of contemporary music in order to restore musical life amid the material and intellectual ruins. Among others, he championed composers as diverse as Walter Braunfels and Tadeusz Baird. This recording is typical of a program – with the added bonus of renowned horn soloist Dennis Brain and oboist Lothar Faber.