Freiburger Barockorchester/ René Jacobs Harmonia Mundi HMC 901959 ****

There aren’t many René Jacobs performances that you can get through without raising an eyebrow or gasping in surprise at some moment of sheer bravado in the music-making. What can make Jacobs such an appealing conductor (even if you don’t fully agree with him) is his lack of what you might call interpretative autopilot, and that certainly applies to his new period-instruments coupling of Mozart’s Symphonies Nos 39 and 40 with the Freiburger Barockorchester. The movement most likely to divide responses is the Menuetto in No 39, which takes off at a lick that’s hard to reconcile with its Allegretto marking. The result is controversially invigorating, and the disc as a whole is full of stimulating if less controversial perspectives. A pairing that’s well worth investigating. See url.ie/55ay