Who? The only thing I knew about 18th-century double bass player and composer Johannes Matthias Sperger was that he was inspired by Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony to write an “Arrival” Symphony (in which, instead of leaving, the instruments enter one by one). These first recordings of three symphonies from the 1780s prove Sperger a more substantial figure: the strength of the minor key works, with their sudden contrasts and bursts of unison writing, take us back to the Sturm und Drang writing of Haydn’s middle period. Springy rhythms and plaintive repeated notes for oboe make the opening movement of the D major symphony a winner; the band give propulsive performances.
