A second Naxos volume of violin concertos by the dashing violinist, swordsman and sometime soldier Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint Georges, brings us another glimpse of the fashionable violin concerto world into which Mozart’s otherwise rather isolated-looking examples were born. The atmosphere of his five Salzburg concertos of 1773 and 1775, with their rondeau finales, clearly owes much to the relaxed lyrical style of the Parisian concerto which Saint-Georges so eloquently represents.

French orchestral music went largely its own way at this time, content to make pleasing and harmonious sounds, to show off a performer’s skill and good taste, and in slow movements to introduce a note of wistful melancholy which can sometimes touch more deeply than the listener might at first suspect. All these things Saint-Georges accomplishes with insouciant ease, while occasionally pushing the melancholia a bit further, as in the moody opening of the slow movement of Op posth No 2.

Comparison between this volume and the first (7/01) – particularly in the slow movement which they share, and which appears here in Concerto ‘No 10’ – reveals that Qian Zhou brings boldness, vigour and fruity tone to her rendition of the solo part, whereas Takako Nishizaki’s sound is wirier and more delicate. Under Kevin Mallon, Qian and the Toronto Camerata also come across as naturally lively and musically alert, next to which the interpretations of Nishizaki and the Cologne Chamber Orchestra under Helmut Müller-Bruhl, with their over-loud harpsichord continuo, seem a mite self-conscious and finicky. If you want both volumes you will be happy enough; if one taste of Saint-Georges is enough, Volume 2 probably scores just slightly higher on music and performance.