Ronald Brautigam’s view of Haydn has undergone a change. These performances of the concertos are at a remove from his recordings of the sonatas, so many of which suffered from facile and dispiritingly non-committal note-spinning. Just how different he can be is heard in the Rondo alla ungarese finale of No 11, its allegro assai marking taken at face value. But instead of a tripping, evenly spaced romp, Brautigam presses forward on the basic tempo while tightening tension further in the D minor middle section where horns in alto bray piercingly. But the other movements are less intense largely because Lars Ulrik Mortensen inexplicably lightens the orchestral bass line.

Andreas Staier, with a conductor of like mind, spreads weight and drama across the whole work. It is impossible to describe how, by microscopic fluctuations of rhythm and dynamics within phrases, he finds an extra dimension of expression across an undulating and modulating argument. He certainly follows CPE Bach’s dictum, ‘Play from the soul and not like a trained bird’, something that Brautigam now tries to do – and very successfully in the slow movements of the remaining concertos, where he responds positively to their dulcet grace.

Mortensen adds oboes and horns to the outer movements of No 4 (their parts in Nos 2, 3 and 4 are thought to be inauthentic) and his commendable attention to the wind writing here – as in No 11 – imparts an extra, and persuasive, glow to the fabric. Thus the performance, in itself so good, complements the versions by Leif Ove Andsnes and Staier who use only strings.

Flaws, including some fussy continuo playing, notwithstanding, it is a pleasure to welcome this realistically balanced and recorded disc because it suggests that Brautigam – who decorates fermatas and plays his own cadenzas throughout – is beginning to develop into a substantial musician.