Here are two different takes on much-loved Mozart scores, both with fair claims to authenticity. One is an arrangement of the great Serenade for 13 wind instruments for a smaller and more convenient ensemble, the other a Harmoniemusik based on numbers from Die Entführung aus dem Serail. The music, of course, is beyond criticism but the reasons for the existence of these versions are rather interesting.

The clarinettist Anton Stadler was probably the commissioner of the Gran Partita, as it became known, and most likely gave a copy of the score to one Christian Friedrich Gottlob Schwencke (1767-1822) – who succeeded CPE Bach as Hamburg’s Stadtkantor – during a concert tour in 1794. Schwencke arranged it as a Gran Quintetto, consisting of a oboe quartet and a fortepiano, and thus a very different sound world to the one Mozart conceived.

Schwencke’s redistribution of the parts is rather persuasive, and he got around certain problems most ingeniously, to the point of cheekiness: he composed his own Trio II for the second Minuet, which is bound to tweak the nose as well as the ear. Quatuor Dialogues and fortepianist Ewald Demeyere make a decent case for the arrangement, although there are moments of bumpy phrasing from the piano and sometimes the business of coaxing recalcitrant olde instruments into action comes over a touch uncomfortably. Nevertheless, there’s some touching extempore ornamentation throughout, and the Allegretto episode in the Romanze is particularly effective.

Mozart complained to his father in 1782 that the commission for a new symphony had come at a bad time, as he had just completed Die Entführung and had to arrange it for wind Harmonie before someone else got round to it. What we have, then, is presumably Mozart’s work (the manuscript is long lost), although other candidates have been suggested. The sheer ingenuity and beguiling sound world of the arrangement, though, speak very much in favour of Mozart’s authorship.

It’s distilled for pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons with double bass – and, of course, four Turkish percussionists, who are, all the same, used sparingly. La Scintilla dei Fiati are the period woodwinds of the Zurich Opera band and play absolutely sublimely, clearly relishing every note. The jingling Johnny jingles gloriously and can’t easily be muted, so it jingles on charmingly when stilled. For those who enjoy the rarely trod byways of Mozart’s music, this glorious disc comes highly recommended.