Discs entirely devoted to Mozart overtures are rare, with good reason. With the familiar works the ear repeatedly craves the opening of the opera itself. The subdued end of the Idomeneo Overture ushers in the bereft Ilia. Instead we get the chattering, conspiratorial strings of Figaro. There’s also a serious danger of overdosing on the pomp and bustle of C and D major. Except for the E flat outlier of Die Zauberflöte, placed last, all the overtures here are in one or other of those keys. With plenty of space to play with, BIS could have leavened the sequence with, say, the priests’ marches from Idomeneo and Die Zauberflöte, and numbers from the Idomeneo ballet music.

Still, I suspect only a reviewer would be inclined to listen to all 12 tracks at a single sitting. If you take these Mozartian aperitifs a few at a time you’ll find plenty to enjoy and stimulate here. Apart from a six-year gap between La finta giardiniera and Idomeneo, the overtures provide a conspectus of virtually Mozart’s whole career, from the cheerfully Italianate Sinfonia to Mitridate to Die Zauberflöte’s unique mix of comic banter and intricate contrapuntal craft. Even if we take the familiar ‘the ink was still wet’ stories with several pinches of salt, Mozart typically wrote his overtures at the last minute. Yet the wonder is that each one, from Idomeneo onwards, is both superb in its own right and perfectly attuned to the opera it precedes. Even in such an occasional piece as the Overture to the one-act farce Der Schauspieldirektor Mozart subjects his jolly buffo themes to powerful symphonic argument.

For me Der Schauspieldirektor is one of the most thrilling of all the overtures. Under Michael Alexander Willens, the virtuoso Cologne players relish its bright, pealing exuberance. Here and elsewhere Willens and his period band combine a shrewd sense of character and pacing with a care for inner detail, abetted by ideally clear, glowing BIS sound. Choosing an ample tempo, Willens is alive to the brooding undercurrents beneath Idomeneo’s D major ceremony. Instrumental balance is spot on, as in the famously chilling opening chords of Don Giovanni, with their mingled density and acerbic brilliance (baleful low horns registering powerfully in the mix). The following Molto allegro has all the fevered energy one could wish, punctured by the rasp of valveless trumpets; yet here, as elsewhere, the tempo never seems over‑driven.

Like Der Schauspieldirektor, the Overture to La clemenza di Tito far transcends C major formality. Willens and his band give it the requisite breadth and majesty, with delectable work from the Cologne woodwind. Indeed, the individual colours of the period wind are among the disc’s prime pleasures, whether in the chuckling repartee of Così fan tutte or the intertwined solos in Die Zauberflöte. The Turkish brigade in Die Entführung enjoy themselves without drowning out everyone else. And with its scintillating writing for firsts and seconds in turn, this overture gains as much as any from the division of the violins left and right, as Mozart would have expected. I still wouldn’t recommend playing more than three or four overtures on the trot. But if you fancy dipping in, you’ll rarely hear performances that match these in colour, character and sheer athletic exuberance.