This is rather delicious, and features quite a range of salon music, from the pleasant galanteries of the various trios and variations to the one true masterpiece here, the Horn Sonata. Given the starry names that comprise Les Vents Français (Pahud, Leleux et al), warmth and fullness of tone can be taken for granted, and the involvement of regular collaborator Éric Le Sage adds further lustre to the endeavour.

This is all early-period music, dating from before the First Symphony and, in the case of the Trio in G, WoO37, a rare survivor from Beethoven’s teenage years in Bonn. Two of the works are arrangements: the Trio in C, Op 87, and the Variations on ‘Là ci darem’ from Don Giovanni were both composed for a pair of oboes with cor anglais but are heard here in skilful later arrangements for oboe, clarinet and bassoon. Perhaps the bare lines of the closing Duo for clarinet and bassoon make for less easy listening but the skill of the composer (who, it has been suggested, may not be Beethoven) in filling out harmonies with such straitened means is nonetheless worth hearing.

Radovan Vlatković is the soloist in the Horn Sonata, playing with beautifully even tone across the range. Its original performer, Giovanni Punto (né Jan Václav Stich) was an expert in making the valveless horn chromatic by inserting his hand to various degrees into the instrument’s bell. Period performances demonstrate the effect this has on the instrument’s tone – the various squawks and squeals it makes when the air column is manhandled in such a way – but, however inauthentic the modern style may be considered, Vlatković makes the best possible case for it.