What’s genuine mingles with much that is inauthentic, thought to be authentic or of doubtful provenance. It’s the sort of history that surrounds many of Haydn’s early compositions. And scholars don’t always agree about what’s what, as is the case with these concertinos and divertimentos. The Cologne Haydn Institute has, with Henle Verlag, published all the works on this disc even though the opinions of seven consultants on four of them range from “probably authentic” to “presumed authentic” to “authentic” with a non-committal “plausible” thrown in.

The booklet refers to them as piano quartets but the keyboard part is in fact for harpsichord; and Roberto Loreggian’s playing, very narrow in dynamic and tonal variety, suggests he’s using a single-manual instrument with few stops. Even so, phrases and paragraphs could have been shaped to offer an expression of feeling for the music; but he prefers a literal approach that does little to differentiate between the individuality of each of the works. They may be largely for light entertainment but the slow movements suggest deeper moments that Loreggian recognises. And he tries to compensate for the lack of instrumental colour by articulating notes unequally – notes inégales – to avoid monotony.

Nevertheless, it is difficult to dispel an overall impression of music diminished. And the lopsided balance that places the harpsichord upfront with the strings, especially second violin and cello, well behind hardly helps matters. Sound quality is good but the transfer level is very high.