Pavel Vranick³ was born in southern Moravia in 1756‚ the same year as Mozart; he and his brother Antonín made their careers‚ very successful ones‚ in and around Vienna as Paul and Anton Wranitzky. He was a friend and colleague of Mozart‚ whose Zauberflöte has some echoes of Wranitzky’s Oberon‚ and conducted important premières for Haydn (The Creation) and Beethoven (the First Symphony). The three symphonies here bear witness to a skilled and enterprising composer. Two of them are straightforward concert pieces‚ each with a slow introduction‚ each with a very spirited finale‚ the D major work especially. The main allegros show plenty of ideas‚ well worked‚ with rich wind writing‚ and there is a quite personal vein of lyrical charm in the slow movements – that of the D major has echoes of Haydn and also hints ahead of Schubert‚ that of the C minor sensitive scoring and a tender main theme. The third movement of the C minor is a sturdy minuet‚ of the D major a lively polonaise. Ultimately‚ the invention is a shade four­square‚ which tends to make sections and even phrases too self­contained for real symphonic development‚ and there is more sequence and repetition than might be ideal. But it is fascinating to see just what a very good composer of this era‚ less great than Mozart or Haydn‚ was doing‚ and it gives those men’s works a clearer context. The third item here is even more intriguing‚ a symphony that represents the French Revolution and events connected with it. It stands at the edge of the ‘battle music’ tradition‚ best represented at this period by Beethoven’s Wellingtons Sieg – there is a menacing first movement‚ then marches for the English‚ the Prussians and the Austrians‚ a highly expressive ‘Fate and Death of Louis’‚ from which it’s clear which side Wranitzky is on‚ a funeral march (sombre and often alarmingly chromatic) for Louis XVI‚ a ‘Tumult of Battle’ and finally a jubilant and affirmative ‘Rejoicing’ at the peace. It may be aesthetically rather naive‚ but it has a good deal of very attractive and effective music. I hope readers will try it. Certainly I cannot imagine better advocacy for it than this recording‚ under the alert and sensitive direction of Matthias Bamert‚ who secures some excellent playing from the London Mozart Players‚ not least the player of the little viola solo in the last movement.