The Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century continues true to its original guiding spirit, with a new recording of the six Hamburg Symphonies, Wq 182 by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. This second son of JS Bach, Carl Philipp has sometimes had a rough ride with posterity (and with some of his contemporaries too). Although overshadowed later by Haydn and Mozart - albeit admired by the pair - and overshadowed in his lifetime by Handel, he remains a crucial link between the Baroque and the Classical, particularly for the ultra-sensitive style, his Empfindsamkeit.

It is over four years since the Viennese pianist, Till Fellner, winner of the 1993 Clara Haskil Competition in Vevey, signed a contract with Erato, but since then only three major issues have appeared, all highly praised, Beethoven’s Second and Third Concertos (9/95), a solo Schubert disc (4/98) and an unusual coupling of Schumann’s Kreisleriana and the Sonata of the short-lived Julius Reubke (10/96). This Mozart coupling imaginatively brings together what Misha Donat’s excellent note describes as “two concertos in military style”. The only disc listed on the Gramophone Database with this same coupling is from Rudolf Serkin’s late and rather heavy-handed Mozart series with Abbado and the LSO. The crisp, fresh, sparkling playing of Fellner provides a total contrast, and the most relevant comparisons are with Schiff and Perahia (now only available as a 12-disc set).

Director Alexander Janiczek proves the perfect choice to direct the music of his fellow Austrian as he delivers a superb performance in this, his second, recording with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.