The Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century strives to re-create the sound of the larger ensembles that performed the music of the Classical period in its own time. The group has amassed a large recording catalog on the Philips and Glossa labels.

The Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century (in Dutch: Orkest van de Achttiende Eeuw) was co-founded by recorder player and conductor Frans Brüggen and Baroque violinist Lucy van Dael in 1981. As with other historically oriented ensembles, the members of the group use instruments authentic to the period of the music being played, but in other ways, the orchestra's mission was new. For one thing, it focused on music of the Classical era, venturing forward into the 19th century for performances of music by Beethoven and others; most early music groups in the early 1980s played Baroque or Renaissance music. For another, the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century is a sizable ensemble, growing to 60 players in its early years and stabilizing at 55 in the mid-2010s. It is much larger than other historically oriented orchestras and reflected new research into the big-city ensembles of Mozart's and Beethoven's time. The orchestra's players at the beginning came from 22 different countries, and it remains international in its makeup. It has never had a fixed home hall or concert series; rather, the players gathered three times a year in Amsterdam for rehearsals and then went on tours that have taken them to major European capitals.

The Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century soon gained attention from major recording companies. In 1988, on the Philips label, the orchestra backed clarinetist Eric Hoeprich on a recording of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622. The group made some 35 recordings for Philips, beginning a new association with Glossa in 1998 with a recording of Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer Night's Dream. The orchestra has also been featured on historically oriented Chopin recordings issued by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw. After Brüggen's death in 2014, the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century has performed with guest conductors, or sometimes with no conductor at all. It is managed by general director Sieuwert Verster, who joined the organization in 1984. In 2021, the group released the album The Hidden Reunion on Glossa. The Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century's tours grew to six annually and then, by 2022, to eight. ~ James Manheim, Rovi