Of the composers who spanned the twilight of the Baroque and the dawn of the Classical period in Central Europe, František Ignác Antonín Tůma (1704 74) may be one of the more recognisable names, even if his music has barely broken through to the extent of contemporaries such as the slightly younger CPE Bach or the slightly older JA Hasse. He was born in Kostelec nad Orlicí in Bohemia, about 140km east of Prague and 250km north of Vienna, and gravitated towards the Imperial capital, where he majored in the composition of church music, along with a smaller output of instrumental music. Missing out on a church post in Prague, he became instead music director for the dowager Empress Elisabeth Christine, widow of Charles VI and mother of Maria Theresa. His contrapuntal ability, arising from his study with Fux, matched her taste in music and is said to have been an early influence on both Haydn and Mozart.

Roman Válek and Czech Ensemble Baroque continue their exploration of his music with a ceremonial Dixit Dominus, having already recorded a Te Deum and a magnificent Requiem for Supraphon. The album may be the more attractive, though, for the presence of Andreas Scholl as soloist not only in the Dixit’s mellifluous ‘De torrente’ but also in a trio of motets. The first, Audite insulae, is a slight piece, perfunctory choruses flanking a brief aria, while the second, Vilescit mihi mundus, better displays Tůma’s dramatic sense and Scholl’s uncannily pitch-perfect theatrical delivery in a recit-aria-recit-aria sequence. The third, Bonum est confiteri Domino, is laden with celebratory colaratura, delivered tirelessly, showing Tůma to be very much a product of his time, deploying techniques familiar from the music of, say, Handel but without the killer tunes. (A black mark to Aparté for printing only the Latin texts but no English translation.)

Ringing trumpets and a doleful duet for alto and tenor trombones (the tenor-and-bass duet ‘Tecum principium’, with soloists drawn from the chorus) contribute to the dignified sound world of the Dixit Dominus, one of at least two settings Tůma made of this text. The music is perhaps not as startling as that on the earlier Supraphon albums but is performed with unerring instinct and precision by the Czech ensemble – and Scholl’s many admirers will be in seventh heaven.