The Overture is regularly played, the rest largely forgotten. But this beginning might impel you to listen to the lot. Drama hangs in the air when George Petrou treats the rests between the two opening fortissimo chords as silences to hold the tension. Horns in C playing at written pitch and glowing with the brazen warmth of period instruments underpin oboes and bassoons in the lyrical theme of this introductory Adagio, the main part of the movement a bitingly dynamic Allegro molto e con brio. But there is a flaw. Even though Petrou doesn’t physically separate them, four second violins to seven firsts result in a sparse upper string sonority; which is a pity, because a very good conductor balances and inspires a technically very accomplished band into fine flights of performance. Pictorial representation of lightning and drenching rain in ‘La tempesta’ or the charged energy of the Bacchanialian No 8, its D minor episode a crazy orgiastic frenzy, attest to their passionate commitment.

Of the less histrionic numbers, two are notable: No 5 for the addition of harps, No 14 for a basset-horn. Petrou, though anything but prosaic, suggests that he is keen to move the music on. Nikolaus Harnoncourt is more accommodating, creating spaces for his musicians to shape their phrases with greater feeling, at the same time keeping the line under control. But perhaps this is to carp in the face of so much that varies from excellent to outstanding, from a group bristling with enthusiasm.