Mahler, to put it mildly, is not an obvious follow-up for an ensemble still fresh from recording Monteverdi. Nor is this approach for all tastes. Gone are many tone colours and lush sonorities. Tempi, too, tend to push forwards, leaving little room for the music to expand. But as the OAE show in their reading of Totenfeier (‘Funeral Rites’), Mahler’s initial excursion into orchestral writing that was later incorporated substantially into his Second Symphony, even a composer this familiar can bear further enlightenment.

Paired with Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (‘Songs of a Wayfarer’), this music makes a fine composer snapshot. In response to recent recordings placing Mahler as a symphonic descendant of Brahms and song-writing successor to Schumann, the real figure looming here is Schubert. As a result, the Lieder remain wonderfully transparent, though mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly matches the orchestra’s single-mindedness almost to a fault. While Connolly’s dark vocal hues fully convey Mahler’s melancholy, her singing offers few of the glimpses of joy that ultimately makes the music seem far more tragic.

Beyond that, however, the OAE provide something all too rare in the Mahler catalogue. One can quibble over musical details, period ‘authenticity’ in the instruments or even the disc’s length – I usually find it hard to recommend any CD clocking in at under 40 minutes – but this is a recognisable portrait of Mahler as a young man, rather than an elder composer of 10 symphonies looking backwards. And for that reason alone, it deserves a place on the shelf.