These recordings were made during a 2015 tour celebrating the 40th birthday of the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the 25th anniversary of Richard Tognetti’s artistic directorship. The programme – Mozart’s last three symphonies – was the same Tognetti had played a quarter of a century earlier as the ACO’s new leader in a concert conducted by Frans Brüggen.

Here, the orchestra’s core strings play a mix of modern and period instruments supplemented by period winds and brass, with Tognetti directing from the violin. In a 2015 interview for the tour, Tognetti argued that the ‘really raucous’ audiences of Mozart’s time make it absurd to believe that he wrote these as ‘three “grand symphonies” to be performed in a sort of sacramental way’. Not surprisingly, perhaps, his interpretations are rather raucous themselves, with urgent tempi, sinewy sonorities and an aggressively muscular approach to phrasing and articulation.

Listen, for example, to the Andante cantabile of the Jupiter, where the chords punctuating the slow-blossoming melody are made into powerful jabs. Although jarring, these fit with Tognetti’s overall conception, which emphasises the music’s dark, dramatic qualities. Indeed, the minor-key sections evoke a demonic, Don Giovanni-like struggle.

In general, however, the pervasive interpretative brusqueness is more wearying than ear-opening. Heavy emphases on the down-beats weigh down the effervescent finale of K543, despite the sprightly tempo. And compare Tognetti’s foursquare reading of the opening movement of the G minor Symphony with Brüggen’s Glossa recording (also made live), which finds more light and shade without any sacrifice in dramatic intensity.

The ACO play with gusto and admirable virtuosity, despite some scrappy moments spotlit by close microphone placement – and there’s 15 seconds or so of applause after each symphony. For equally trenchant Mozart performances with greater emotional range, I’d recommend René Jacobs and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.