Haydn’s cello concertos may top and tail the running order but this programme hinges around the figure of Nicola Porpora (1686-1768), doyen of opera seria in Vienna, to whom the young Haydn was introduced by Metastasio and from whom he imbibed musical instruction while working as his valet. ‘There was no want of ass, cullion, rascal, and pokes in the ribs’, Haydn later told a biographer, ‘but I put up with all of it, for I profited greatly with Porpora in singing, in composition, and in the Italian language.’

The Largo of Porpora’s G major Concerto illustrates the link between the two composers and an aria with cello obbligato is performed by no less than Philippe Jaroussky. The operatic link to Gluck is drawn via Christian-Pierre La Marca’s own transcription of the Dance of the Blessed Spirits, the instrumental link to Mozart via his fragmentary Sinfonia concertante for violin, viola (tuned up a tone) and cello, in which we hear the composer audibly losing interest in his material before the score peters out after 134 bars and the task is completed – most persuasively, it has to be said – by the musicologist and pianist Robert Levin.

The main attraction, though, remains the two Haydn concertos, both beautifully performed, with a prominent harpsichord continuo. If the emphasis is more on lyricism than in the case of the most recent recording I heard of these works – by Christian Poltéra and the Munich Chamber Orchestra – that is partly due to the lower pitch adopted by Julien Chauvin’s Le Concert de la Loge and La Marca’s looser string set-up. Which is not to imply that the motoric outer movements of the C major (Concerto No 1) are any less vital or the high-lying lines of the D major (No 2) any less vocal in conception and execution. La Marca is joined in the Mozart by his viola-playing brother Adrien and violinist-conductor Chauvin. The recording is rich and close, picking up a fair amount of breathing and fingerwork from the soloist, but the programme is unique, the performances consistently eloquent and satisfying.