Pleyel: Symphony in F & Violin Concerto in D

Drive Featured Album, from 10 August 2015 after 6pm.

Austrian-born Ignace Joseph Pleyel was a prolific Classical era composer and piano builder, producing 41 symphonies, 70 string quartets and several string quintets and operas. He's an example of a composer who was lauded in his own time but is almost unknown today. But performers are increasingly discovering his works - which turn out simply to be charming.

Here, Pleyel's Symphony F is given a spirited and precise account by Luca Bizzozero with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, based on the complement of the classic symphony orchestra.

The young Swiss violinist Sebastian Bohren joins them for Pleyel's Violin Concerto in D, delivering his part with sensitivity and expression while the orchestra packs a considerable punch.

Also included here is a spritely Symphony in G by Johann Baptist Wanhal, an equally prolific Czech composer who produced some 100 quartets, at least 73 symphonies, 95 sacred works, and a large number of instrumental and vocal works. 

Well worth discovering.