Mozart’s Salzburg friend and patroness Countess Antonia Lodron was evidently a far more sympathetic figure than her brother, the stern and unloved Archbishop Colloredo. For her name day in June Mozart composed two attractive, lightweight divertimenti, probably for al fresco performance, of which the earlier is offered here. The Swedish CO are a polished group; and if you want the divertimento played by multiple strings and don’t mind some leisurely tempi (especially in the Andante grazioso second movement), their performance will serve well enough. But this music is both more intimate and more fun with single strings, as Mozart intended. Turn to the Gaudier Ensemble (Hyperion, 1/04), with their breezier tempi, springier rhythms and lighter textures, and you’ll hear a sparkle, tenderness and impish wit that elude the urbane, slightly sober Swedes.

Eine kleine Nachtmusik was also written for solo strings, though in a performance as fresh and inventive as that by Andrew Manze and The English Concert (Harmonia Mundi, 10/03), numbers seem irrelevant. This new recording is perfectly acceptable, with some shapely phrasing in the first movement and a welcome crispness and ebullience in the finale. But the Minuet sounds rather stolid (compare Manze, at a tempo only fractionally quicker), while the Romanze, like the second movement of the divertimento, is surely too sleepy for a Mozart andante – and the switch to solo strings at a couple of points seems a dubious gimmick.

The Serenata notturna, with its comic contrasts between thunderous tuttis and fragile solo textures, comes off best. I liked the extravagant interpolated cadenzas for violin and, improbably, double bass, in the rustic finale. Here too, though, Manze finds that much more character in the music, not least in his own zestful solo contributions. Those on a tight budget won’t go seriously wrong with this new disc. But while Naxos so often match the best, irrespective of price, here it really is worth paying more for the alternatives.