Lost in transcription? Most definitely; but let’s be gracious towards Jean-Baptiste Cimador (1761-1805) who, with the best of intentions, arranged these symphonies for strings only. He wanted their wider currency because the Haymarket Theatre orchestra in London had rejected them. And reduced to small forces they had a better chance of being heard in “high society drawing rooms”. Or so Cimador felt, and it would be churlish to argue with his logic.

It was nevertheless the logic of his time. Today we don’t need ersatz Mozart; the genuine article is abundant. Curious collectors who may however like to listen to this disc are also likely to baulk at content; because it isn’t remotely in the same league as, say, Vivaldi transcribed by Bach, or Bach transcribed by Busoni. This is Mozart emasculated. Cimador had ignored his idiom. He recast the notes but their imposing spirit fell by the wayside because strings are no substitute for woodwind, brass and timpani. One instance tells the whole tale. No 36 is the first ever symphony to incorporate trumpets and drums in a slow movement but they aren’t even a ghostly presence here. Grandeur is nullified – and not recaptured by Gilles Colliard. He directs from the first desk and the Andante of No 38, wound up to Allegretto, exemplifies his clipped style and little sense of undulant phrasing within a long line. He trivialises this movement and virtually all the others. The lamentable loss of stature, though, begins with Cimador.