The chuckling, chattering overture to Rossini's early farsa comica launches an agreeable, if rather random, assortment of items culled from three separate concerts in St John's, Smith Square. Mozart's jejune First Symphony (would anyone bother with this if it were by, say, Wagenseil or Monn?) would have benefited from more raucous horns and a lighter, springier bass-line. But the Rossini sparkles, not least due to the gamesome LCO woodwind, while the strings muster an aptly astringent sonority in Mozart's gnarled Adagio and Fugue, an astonishing, atypical piece that lies somewhere between JS Bach at his most tortuous and Beethoven's Grosse Fuge. Best of all are Susan Gritton's performances of Countess Almaviva's arias from Figaro and Beethoven's impressive - and overtly Mozartian - tragic scena "Ah! perfido". Always a refined classical stylist, Gritton brings a mingled aristocratic dignity and intensity of feeling to both "Porgi amor" (vindicating a slower-than-usual tempo) and "Dove sono". Her phrasing is broadly sculpted, with expressive use of portamento, her darkly lucent tone evenly produced throughout its range. In the Beethoven Gritton catches all the distraught heroine's grief, self- pity and indignation, whether flinging out furious imprecations at her faithless lover or pleading for his compassion in tones of aching tenderness. Christopher Warren-Green conjures fine, fiery playing from his orchestra here, with, again, notably eloquent woodwind. At 52 minutes the playing time is distinctly niggardly. But the disc is worth its price for Gritton's contribution alone.

This third volume in the "LCO Live" series is a programme loosely connected by the theme of betrayed women, opening with the overture to Rossini's La Scala Di Seta and concluding with Beethoven's concert aria "Ah! Perfido", with three pieces by Mozart sandwiched between, including two arias from Le Nozze Di Figaro. Susan Gritton's delivery of the three arias has an exquisite balance of grace and intensity befitting their spurned heroines, while the LCO's presentation of Mozart's Symphony No 1 and the later Adagio and Fugue in C minor vividly illustrates he composer's growth, from the shallow enthusiasm of the symphony to the darker, troubled terrain of the fugue.