In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the OAE made pioneering records of Carl Philipp Emanuel's Resurrection and Ascension oratorio (with Philipp Herreweghe) and Cello Concertos (with Anner Bylsma and Gustav Leonhardt). These energetic committed performances of five symphonies dating from between 1757—when Haydn was first writing in the genre—and 1780 show the period band has lost none of its verve and enthusiasm for this strange, dramatic music from the dawn of the 'classical' era.