"These recordings of Mozart's symphonies are not as famous as those by other conductors like Neville Marriner or Karl Boehm, but they are just as rewarding. The English Chamber Orchestra has a smaller, more "spunky" sound that emphasizes the details in the music. It has more spirit than the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and is not as thick and Romantic as the Berlin Philharmonic. Daniel Barenboim, who recorded all of Mozart's piano concertos with the ECO around the same time as these symphonies, is the master of forward thrust. What I mean by that is, even though you hear a lot of fine detail in the woodwinds and cellos and so forth, the music is always driving forward in an aggressive fashion. These are not laid-back performances--do NOT use them for background music! The ECO plays beautifully with any conductor, but it is really Barenboim who makes these performances special. One gets the feeling that this is the way Mozart should really sound."