Ernst von Gemmingen cuts an intriguing figure. Born in 1759, he was a violin-playing German aristocrat who combined a series of administrative and advisory court roles with as much music-making as he could cram in, aided by a rich music library stocked with virtually all the string quartets of Haydn and Boccherini as well as several Mozart first editions. So far, so average-Joe-musical-aristocrat, you might say. Only in 1800, aged 40, he composed four violin concertos, which appear to be the only four works he ever wrote. Plus, the plot thickening further, they’re not amateur scribbles but instead engaging, structurally interesting works that combine Classical Italianate style and early Romantic bel canto lyricism with virtuoso solo violin-writing. As for whether they’re as visionary and destined for wider popularity as these CD notes insist, I’m not sure, but this premiere studio recording of the second two (following on from the same team’s premiere recording of the first pair, issued in 2012) presents them with such warmth and joie de vivre that we can just park that discussion and get on with enjoying them at face value.

Kolja Lessing is light, lithe, strong and vigorous of tone in Gemmingen’s mostly high-register writing, his ornamentations almost clinically exact. He attacks the fireworks with relish, really dances through celebratory-sounding movements such as the Third Concerto’s bouncing final Rondo, and sings through the slow movements’ long lines; just listen to the Fourth Concerto’s Adagio. The cadenzas – his own – are a seamless stylistic fit too. Still, for me it’s probably the orchestra who get the lion’s share of the credit for selling this music; warmly effervescent and exact, whether in passages which caress or skip, they’re truly magnificent.

On the back of this lot, Gossec’s symphony, probably written 40 years earlier in France, feels like a rather strange-fitting and ordinary postscript, much as Weigle and the orchestra present it in the best possible light.