Never heard of František Tůma? Fear not, this recording from Czech Ensemble Baroque and Roman Valék, Andreas Scholl a glossy guest-star, supplies all the necessary introductions.

The Czech composer (1704-1774) spent the bulk of his career in Vienna, ultimately employed in the imperial court of Elisabeth Christina, widow to Emperor Charles VI, and later in the favour of her daughter Empress Maria Theresa. The more modest musical demands of the widow’s Hetzendorf estate are reflected here in a sampler of solo motets, cantatas and instrumental music.

It’s all terribly pretty and graceful. There’s more than a hint of the galant to Tůma’s high Baroque style, with its rippling accompaniments and even, mid-pace arias. The tribulations of love and faith (no translations for the Latin texts are supplied) play out within a fairly narrow emotional spectrum, from daintily anxious to polite jubilation – a sensation amplified by Válek’s musicians, who take a soft-focus approach to music which seems to arrive wrapped in wadding.

Everything feels at a distance from microphones, particularly Scholl, who nevertheless projects some serious star-power, lifting this recording to another...