Simon Mayr (1763 1845) had a dependability that kept him immune to the inspirational ups and downs and empty note-spinning of some of his contemporaries. Though premiered in Venice in the year of Mozart’s death, Jacob’s Flight from Laban might be likened, harmonically and dramatically, to pre-Idomeneo Mozart. Flights of occasional brilliance are heard within a generalised ability to meet the dramatic challenges of the material at hand.

Though Mayr operas with compelling source material hold their own on the modern stage, this oratorio seems more distant, presuming that listeners come to the piece with an interest in the somewhat musty Old Testament episode in which Jacob breaks with his uncle Laban, and the inner conflicts of Jacob’s wife Rachel. Anja Morgenstern’s excellent notes tells us of provocative departures from the biblical plotlines that one probably wouldn’t notice in the piece’s steady-as-she-goes narrative. All roles are sung by females, though there’s little gender differentiation in the character of the vocal lines.

Recitatives have a respectable level of dramatic heat. Elsewhere, the composer seems hesitant to burden his audience with much psychological darkness. In Rachel’s aria ‘Per loca incerta obscura’, for example, the ‘dark places in misery’ sound like a walk in the park. Then again in such moments, one can count on an obbligato, a modulation to the minor or a formidable brass entrance that retrieves one’s ear and reminds one that, on its own terms, there is inspirational vitality here.

Conductor/harpsichordist Franz Hauk’s Mayr advocacy is more about respect than passion. Mayr’s coloratura writing, in particular, could be more exciting when sung at a higher velocity. And he has the kind of cast that could handle it. All the singers were new to me; they are all extremely capable and alert to whatever morsels of characterisation come their way. The title-role singers – Siri Karoline Thornhill as Laban and Julie Comparini as Jacob – rightly dominate the recording, both summoning implied masculinity from the darker colours of their respective voices. Yet even a minor role such as the Shepherd is charmingly rendered by Katharina Ruckgaber.