Born to a peasant family in 1739, Johann Baptist Vaňhal became one of the most important and popular composers working in Vienna in the 18th century. Though not ambitious for high position, fame or fortune, Vaňhal’s talent for reacting to changing social and economic conditions, as well as musical fashion, made him the first major composer of the time to earn a comfortable living without any official appointment or patronage. Vaňhal’s vast output includes quartets, sacred scores, chamber and instrumental music, as well as around 80 symphonies. Written between the early 1760s and the mid-1770s the three symphonies on this recording display the familiar Vaňhal trademarks of rhythmic vitality and structural inventiveness, allied to a highly developed sense of orchestral colour.