The name of Joseph Eybler (1765-1846) is known to Mozart lovers as Constanze’s first choice to complete the Requiem. After filling in some of the orchestration he gave up, apparently overawed at the task. But on the evidence of these two symphonies from the late 1780s, he would probably have done a better job than Süssmayr.

Before he came to know Mozart, Eybler had been encouraged by Haydn. And the example of Haydn’s recent, sensationally successful Paris Symphonies lies behind both works: the festive triple-time opening movement of the C major, No 1, for instance, seems to remember Haydn’s No 82 (The Bear) in the same key, while No 2’s second minuet and Ländler trio recall, on a smaller scale, the minuet in No 86. Haydnesque, too, is Eybler’s colourful use of solo woodwind, and his fondness for shadowing the first violin line with a bassoon.

Though he indulges in the odd bout of counterpoint, his allegros have little of Haydn’s developmental rigour or penchant for harmonic surprise. But these are engaging, carefully composed works, melodically attractive (try the catchy contredanse finale of No 1, or No 2’s picturesque siciliano serenade) and deftly orchestrated, above all the bantering buffo finale of No 2. Using modern instruments with a fair sense of period style (articulation is light and pointed, vibrato sparingly applied), the Geneva Chamber Orchestra under Michael Hofstetter give thoroughly enjoyable performances: rhythmically vital, elegantly phrased, and always alive to the music’s witty and piquant detail.

The recording gives the expert wind-players due prominence. As so often with CPO, though, the translation of the (inadequate) German note reads as if it had been done by computer.