Bavarian-born but thoroughly Italianised by training, Simon Mayr (1763-1845) was one of the most successful opera composers of his day and a key influence on Rossini, Bellini and his own pupil Donizetti. But his subsequent eclipse is not surprising. As recordings of Medea in Corinto and Ginevra have revealed, he is all too liable to lapse into decorous amiability, even frivolity, when something far sterner or more intense is required. So it is in these two “homage” cantatas, the one composed to honour an imperial visit to Bergamo, the other hastily put together for a Beethoven commemorative concert in 1827.

L'Armonia, which simultaneously celebrates the power of music and the glory of the Habsburgs, has its agreeable moments: a solemn “hymn to harmony” with rich wind scoring, for instance, or a charming trio and chorus with harp obbligato (something of a Mayr speciality). Elsewhere, though, the invention tends to veer between the jaunty and the downright banal. A would-be bellicose number for tenor and chorus sounds positively flippant - like comic Rossini minus the dangerous, intoxicating verve; and when Mayr embarks on a lyrical tune, it soon becomes encrusted with otiose coloratura.

If L'Armonia is at least worth hearing, the Beethoven cantata, partly concocted from works by Cherubini and Mayr written in homage of Haydn, was surely best left interred. The graceful, rather Mozartian opening promises more than it delivers. Thereafter blandness and empty rhetoric prevail, relieved briefly by reminiscences of the Pastoral Symphony and Mass in C. Those who do decide to investigate should find the performances more than acceptable. Chorus and orchestra, from Mayr's native city, are spirited if a trifle homespun. The three soloists all negotiate their pyrotechnics fluently enough, though soprano Talia Or sounds stretched in the high tessitura of the Beethoven cantata. Best is the young Russian baritone Nikolay Borchev, with his warmly sonorous tone and elegant sense of style: a singer to watch.