That Gottfried von der Goltz and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra have arrowed straight to the three most popular (and uncoincidentally best) Mozart violin concertos suggests that this is a one-off release rather than the first instalment of a ‘complete five’, but hey, that’s all right – it doesn’t hurt to be selective. Their readings give plenty to chew on. Right from the opening tutti of K216 the band show their familiar strengths of firmly propulsive ensemble, a clearly balanced but blended texture and the kind of power in reserve that protects against coarseness when things get loud. An unusual element is the fortepiano continuo of director Kristian Bezuidenhout, which tickles the music with little riffs and fill-ins, smooths over some of the cadences with bubbling spread chords and throws the occasional dramatic dart. Maybe not everyone will relish such annotations when they do not come from Mozart himself, but they are harmless and graceful, and in more integrated moments the fortepiano adds a buoyant underpinning to the collective sound. And if there is a slight lack of warm colours in the orchestral playing overall, there is some truly satisfying rhythmic push, a swagger even, especially in the firmly articulated ‘character’ sections – the musettes, gavottes and Turkish marches – of the finales.

Von der Goltz himself is nimble and purposeful, though not without a certain whinny in his basically vibrato-less tone, and a glassiness that can sound fragile after the orchestra’s bluff introductions, especially in the slow movements. Although you get used to it quickly enough, he cannot be said to offer the nuanced sweetness of Isabelle Faust with Giovanni Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico (Harmonia Mundi, 12/16) or precision charm of Francesca Dego with Roger Norrington and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Chandos, 10/21, 10/22), to name two relatively recent competitors. His cadenzas are of the rather discursive, sometimes even contrapuntal type that could wear on repeated listening but they hold the stage initially at least. While these may not be the most beautiful accounts of these teenage stirrings of genius, they are never perfunctory and perhaps offer instead a convincing suggestion of the beautiful youth’s cheery confidence and energy.