Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä/Patrick Gallois (flute) Naxos 8.572550***

Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831) wasn't just a popular composer. He founded an important music publishing house in 1795 and set up a company to manufacture state-of-the-art pianos in 1807. His music was so successful that it had appeared in more than 2,000 separate editions by the end of the 18th century; Haydn (his teacher) presented some of Pleyel's piano trios to a publisher under his own name. Although Pleyel was 25 years Haydn's junior, it's the flavour of the older master that comes across most clearly to a modern listener in the two symphonies recorded here. They're from the 1780s and are more melodically straightforward than Haydn. Yet while they lack the snap or element of surprise you might expect from Haydn, they do have moments of real power. Patrick Gallois's playing of the 1797 Flute Concerto is not as style-sensitive as his conducting. url.ie/af6o