Soon after the past year’s flurry from Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi, 10/15), Nézet-Séguin (DG, 8/15) and the Glyndebourne production by David McVicar (Opus Arte, 8/16), here is another abduction into Mozart’s pseudo-Turkish world of love, threatened chastity, attempted rescue and forgiveness. The first fruit of an unspecified longer-term collaboration between conductor Jérémie Rhorer, his period-instrument orchestra Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and the label Alpha, this live concert recording was made a short while after some of the artists had worked together on a staged production at Aix-en-Provence. The orchestra play with gracefulness, warmth, wit and flair as Mozart’s score demands; the janissary percussionists do not produce the visceral thrill they might have done (especially in an Overture that minces rather than punches); but sublime orchestrations in arias such as the interplay between woodwinds and strings in Belmonte’s ‘Ich baue ganz’ are played with velvety finesse.

Jane Archibald sings Konstanze’s set pieces with admirable dignity (a lovely ‘Traurigkeit’ with flawlessly shaped woodwinds) and resolute virtue (‘Marten aller Arten’, in which the concertante quartet play beautifully but tutti orchestral contributions seem to lack Sturm und Drang vigour until the aria reaches its climactic stages); this is not mere postulating created by hammed-up lamentation or confrontation but a perceptive realisation of this Samuel Richardson-like heroine. Norman Reinhardt discreetly conceals traces of a bigger voice in Belmonte’s quicker coloratura phrases in ‘O wie ängstlich’, although otherwise his depiction of the would-be rescuer’s shifting emotions of ardent sentimentality and naive hopefulness are spot-on (and every detail of instrumental colour and emotional expression is realised neatly by Rhorer and his orchestra).

Mischa Schelomianski not only has Osmin’s obligatory low notes but sings them articulately, and characterises the villain with an endearing touch of humour. Rachele Gilmore’s sweet singing in ‘Durch Zärtlichkeit’ makes Blonde seem demure rather than feisty (the soft highest notes wobble just a little, but that’s inevitable in a live performance), and her chiding of the grumpy Osmin is lightly comical (as it should be). David Portillo performs Pedrillo’s ‘In Mohrenland gefangen war’ elegantly – but did some of the Parisian audience really have to clap after it? Clearly it is their fault that Osmin wakes up sober enough to foil the lovers’ escape plot.

The clandestine reunion of all four escapees in the quartet at the end of Act 2 is one of the supreme miracles of Mozart’s genius as a musical dramatist, and this radiant performance touchingly conveys its microcosm of bliss, love, jealousy, reconciliation and hope. But although the spoken dialogues between the singers and actor Christoph Quest (Pasha Selim) are effectively conversational and dramatic enough, they are hindered by severe abridgement, which too often in important scenes obscures the nuances, motivations and reactions of characters.

Nevertheless, Rhorer’s astute pacing of the musical drama, consistently persuasive tempi, stylish sculpting of orchestral subtleties and sensible casting of singers who prove to be suitable for the vocal and dramatic demands of their roles all means that this very enjoyable recording arguably has an advantage of musical consistency over other recent versions.