Over 30 years ago, American pianist Thomas Richner said of Mozart’s Sonata K333, “If the student will imagine himself a singer and study the work from a vocal viewpoint, a much more faithful interpretation of Mozart’s ideas will result”. Claire-Marie Le Guay produces a yielding singing line and chooses dynamics wherever Mozart left none. She underlines the extraordinary chromaticism that begins the second half of the Andante cantabile; and gives the unusual 28-bar cadenza (4'35" to 6'03") in the finale a subtly improvisatory quality without defying the instruction in tempo. Puzzlingly she doesn’t repeat this sort of artistry in most of K309, being uneasy in the first movement and far from gracious in the Allegretto grazioso finale. The tone of the close-miked piano varies in quality, and here it is thin.

It is consistently excellent in the Adagio of Haydn’s Sonata No 31, a haunting throwback to an archaic style where Le Guay is at her most searching; and single-mindedly serious in following her own inclinations, like responding individually to the enigmatic direction open pedal accompanied by a wavy line in two passages in the first movement of No 60. Most feel that Haydn wanted a subdued una corda effect. Others like Le Guay believe he wanted the sonorous continuum of sound created by lifted dampers. Perversely, perhaps, she ignores the instruction the first time but evokes a magical aura at the second appearance (5'14" and 7'16") – a minor oddity in the light of two thoughtfully prepared Haydn interpretations.