The ever fastidious and scholarly John Eliot Gardiner leaves no stone unturned as his project to record all of the mature Mozart operas with his period instrument English Baroque Soloists arrives at the dramma giocoso that is Don Giovanni. Gardiner rightly opts for the so- called "Vienna" version, the last to have been performed during the composer's lifetime, whilst via an appendix he also offers two missing arias plus a variant account of the Don and Commendatore confrontation from the earlier Prague version. No less conclusive is Gardiner's hard-driven and gritty account of the whole, in which he elicits chiaroscuro shading and sonority from an ever-alert EBS. He is also well served by a crack cast. There's a big- voiced Donna Anna from Luba Orgonasova; a crisply enunciated Donna Elvira from Charlotte Margiono, and an athletic and attractive Zerlina from Eirian James. Christoph Prégardien's staunch Don Ottavio and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo's sparring Leporello keep up the good work, leaving the stage clear for the Don himself, sung by the American baritone Rodney Gilfry. Gilfry comes over as forthright and full bodied, with a pleasing but unbooming chest voice; also he interprets the role psychologically, making for an engaging all-round showing. In fact Gardiner's entire reading engages with its questing veracity and taut ensemble from singers and orchestra alike. Finely recorded, lavishly presented, there probably isn't a better period- instrument Giovanni in the catalogue. --Duncan Hadfield