Admired by the young Mozart, Josef Myslivecek (1737-81) - dubbed “Il Boemo” (“The Bohemian”) by the Italians, unable to pronounce his name - enjoyed a glittering career as an opera composer before paying a heavy price for a famously promiscuous lifestyle: syphilis, a botched operation, permanent facial disfigurement (which shocked Mozart when he visited him in Munich in 1777), and a squalid, impoverished death in Rome. In his heyday - roughly from the mid-1760s to the mid-1770s - his instrumental works were almost as popular as his operas; and while these pithy, Italianate symphonies offer no startling revelations, they reveal a composer of “fire”, “taste” (18th-century buzzwords) and skilled craftsmanship. Allegros, as so often at this period, are stronger on gesture and bustling figuration than memorable melody, and their brevity precludes much in the way of development. But Myslivecek handles gallant clichés with vigour and an unerring sense of proportion. He specialises, too, in colourful contrasts of texture, as in the delightful minuet finale of the F major Symphony, with its prominent oboes and horns. Slow movements (usually not so slow) have a guileless charm, occasionally - as the doleful C minor Andantino of the E flat Symphony, or the Larghetto which opens the C major Symphony for strings alone - rather more than that.

More immediately fetching than any of the symphonies, though, is the E flat Concertino, in effect, a small-scale sinfonia concertante for flutes, clarinets, bassoon and horns. The invention has a grace and suavity that we tend to call Mozartian; and, like Mozart, Myslivecek delights in exploiting the virtuosity of his wind players. The horns, especially, have some fearsome athletic challenges, all surmounted with bravado by the players of Concerto Köln. Throughout the disc this superb period band do “Il Boemo” proud with sharply characterised playing that combines fizzing, crackling energy, shapely lyricism in the slow movements and a crucial sense of enjoyment.