Silesian-born Anton Zimmermann (1741 81) spent much of his short life as director of the court orchestra in Pressburg (now Bratislava). Maintained by the prince-primate of Hungary, this band was reputed to be among the finest in Europe and Zimmermann’s 40 or so symphonies for it were performed across the continent.

Like so many of the works of the period that don’t bear the names of Mozart or Haydn, Zimmermann’s are now all but forgotten. Werner Ehrhardt points out that he was most active during the 1770s, when music in the Habsburg Empire was undergoing the major upheaval that resulted in the High Classical Style, and that had he not died before the age of 40, ‘we would now undoubtedly acknowledge him as one of the great Classical composers’.

Perhaps, perhaps. There is certainly an air of experimentation in these three works, as identified by Ehrhardt. The E minor instantly invites comparisons with Haydn; and there is a distinct tinge of Sturm und Drang terseness, along with a canonic minuet of the sort enjoyed by the older composer. The B flat gives a starring role to its woodwind section, and the C minor, known in some sources as Lamentatione, makes great play of a gobbet of plainchant – again, shades of Haydn – played on, of all instruments, a trombone, 30 or so years before Beethoven incorporated the instrument into his symphonies.

L’Arte del Mondo give the music suitable advocacy, playing with admirable confidence and accuracy. It’s a jolly good thing that musicians such as Ehrhardt and labels such as DHM continue to explore and enhance our understanding of the more marginal figures of the early Classical period.