There have been many prolific composers, but seldom in the field of classical music has anyone made so much of so little as Joseph Haydn. His way of spinning a rhythmic gesture or a fragmentary theme into a skein of golden invention is second to none, and if the twin genii who followed him hadn’t eclipsed all comers, we might hear more of him in the concert hall.

One group who has embraced Papa Joseph are the Australian Haydn Ensemble, the five-year-old brainchild of Artistic Director and Principal Violinist Skye McIntosh. A discerning ABC Classics have climbed on board for a debut CD, endorsing a group who have built a following for dynamic performance and imaginative programming, chiefly to date in Sydney and Canberra. This recording should carry them to the ears of the rest of the world.

The young ensemble is suitably matched by young man’s music in a charming early symphony, a probably contemporaneous cello concerto and, as a grand finale, a mature work: Haydn’s most popular keyboard concerto – the one with the ear-tickling Gypsy finale.

Daniel Yeadon is the excellent soloist in the First Cello Concerto, one of two superb...