Haydn’s pupil Ignaz Pleyel is today remembered more as a publisher, piano maker and inventor of the miniature score than for his music. But while he sometimes came under fire for imitating his teacher too closely (in this he was not alone), Pleyel’s concertos, symphonies and, especially, his symphonies concertantes, were hugely popular in Paris and London during the 1780s and early 1790s. The two concertantes recorded here – the B flat for the Mozartian pairing of violin and viola, the A major for two violins – reveal a polished technique and a vein of amiable, on occasion ear-tickling, melodic invention. The A major, composed for London in 1792, is the more attractive of the two, with its plaintive siciliano slow movement and chic rondo finale. There is also a touching minor-key Adagio, like a wordless aria, in the D major Violin Concerto, played here with the jaunty replacement finale Pleyel supplied for a performance in Strasbourg.

In the first movements of both the Violin Concerto and the B flat Symphonie concertante, Pleyel can amble and chatter to no great purpose. Certainly it would be futile in these leisurely, undemanding works to seek the inventiveness and tight formal control of Haydn, who composed his own 1792 Sinfonia concertante in a spirit of friendly rivalry with his one-time pupil. Still, if none of these concertos is as interesting as the best of Pleyel’s symphonies, explorers of the Haydn-Mozart hinterland should find plenty of innocent enjoyment here. Performances are more than acceptable, with trim playing from the (modern-instrument) Baltimore band, and assured solo contributions from David Perry (stylish and sweet-toned in the solo concerto) and his violin and viola partners.