The highlights of this collection are the Budapest players’ vividly realised accounts of the rarely recorded wind and string Serenata and the two youthful sets of variations for assorted soloists and small orchestra. These engaging and stylish performances of engaging and stylish music make up a little under half the collection’s 65 minute duration.

The longest work in the programme is the first of the 12-year-old Rossini’s six string sonatas. Originally written for two violins, cello and double bass, the sonatas are suicidally difficult to bring off when played by a full complement of orchestral strings. Helped by Fischer’s measured tempi, the Budapest strings cope admirably with the G major Sonata.

“I believe that this music needs clarity of sound,” writes Fischer, “like that of the dry but transparent Italian theatres.” Alas, in the three full-dress orchestral pieces he doesn’t entirely get it. The splendid Rendez-vous de chasse for four hunting horns and orchestra receives a slightly laboured performance, short on rhythmic and sonic bite. The overture to La scala di seta is also rather foggily played and recorded, Fischer’s quick tempi too quick both for the acoustic and the size of the ensemble. As for the Semiramide overture, I can’t recall hearing a more engaging or amusingly phrased account of the first allegro subject, which would be fine if this was a comic opera. Alas, it is not; it is a melodramma tragico. Curiously, the booklet essay leads with a paragraph on La gazza ladra whose overture is not included here.