Jérémie Rhorer and his period orchestra Le Cercle de l’Harmonie were new names to me when I encountered them on the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles’s recent giant box-set of French music (8/08), but I could not help noticing straight away that they knew their way round a Classical symphony, and were well able to make strong cases for the forgotten talents of Gossec, Rigel and Le Duc. It is good news, then, that they have been picked up by Virgin, and here offer a taut trio of symphonies composed by the 16-year-old Mozart in the spring of 1773.

I say “taut” partly because at 51 minutes this is a CD on the short side, but also because there is a lot of controlled energy in these performances, immediately apparent in the first movement of Symphony No 25, which is driven but not forced, effectively opposing vigorously scrubbed violins and urgently pressed horn-blasts with a touchingly plaintive solo oboe in its second theme. Rhorer’s sure pacing is also shown in the finale (a movement too often rushed or dragged), as well as in the nicely judged forward momentum of all three slow movements. A good feel for line and colour – the bassoons are fondly drawn out in No 25’s slow movement, and Mozart’s brass accents are consistently used to add telling fire and weight – and plenty of neat and imaginative articulation and phrasing reach their collective zenith in the richly unfolding delights of the slow movement of No 29. The serious Symphony No 26 is a rarity but comes over strongly, especially in the operatic minor-key wistfulness of its middle movement. Perhaps Rhorer fails to find the true warmth and gossamer glow of Mozart’s more delicate passages, but this is a fine start none the less.