Scottish Chamber Orchestra - Mozart: Opera Arias & Overtures - Sinfini Music

Thrilling playing from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra make this an essential disc in a crowded market, says Alexandra Coghlan, who enjoys this whistle-stop tour around Mozart's operas.

There's bags of revolutionary drama, but also a certain bustling, glint-in-the-eye levity to the performance of Mozart's Overture from The Marriage of Figaro that opens this disc. It's a musical combination that says everything about the current state of play at the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. They've always had quality, but under musical director Robin Ticciati have acquired a new expressive boldness, a flexibility, evident here in the rhetorical risk-taking of the orchestral playing.

Conductor Christian Baldini pairs Mozart's best-loved opera overtures - Don Giovanni, Idomeneo, Così fan tutte - with arias from the same operas, performed by soprano Elizabeth Watts. It's a canny programme, distilling the genius of Mozart down to a brisk hour of music.

If some of Mozart's heroines suit Watts better than others (her Zerlina radiates persuasive charm and vocal warmth, but her Susanna has a weight and maturity that seem at odds with the youthful maid, even in the self-conscious performance that is 'Deh Vieni'), then it's a small quibble in a disc that ranges from the lightest of comedy to the mature tragedy of Idomeneo's Ilia. A particular welcome inclusion is Servilla's exquisite 'S'altro che lacrime' from La Clemenza di Tito - melody spun into an endless gilded arc by Watts.

But the real star here is the SCO. From the brass-dominated thrills of the Idomeneo overture to the skittish delight of Così's and the lyrical delicacy of La finta giardiniera, this is an ensemble alive to every shifting mood and expressive possibility. The results are giddily exciting; I defy you not to rush immediately to the opera house after listening to this album.