Haydn wrote four violin concertos, not three as stated in the booklet-note. And Christa Landon, in her 1959 edition of the fourth, insists that “a harpsichord must be employed as a continuo instrument for harmonic reasons and for sound”. Better counsel prevails here. In both concertos the harpsichord is considerately balanced and played, to guide the orchestra but not to overlay Haydn’s fully scored string textures with an unnecessarily clattering harmonic emphasis that distracts the listener as well.

Rachel Podger is a touch close and the volume level has to be lowered for aural comfort. But the sound has a warm glow that enhances her standpoint that these works are not lightweight nonentities. She finds in them a largeness of scale within their modest proportions. Slow movements are particularly profound, of a depth that doesn’t quite extend to Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante.

Perhaps these musicians are over-awed by “the great portrait of a passionate soul which ranges from melancholy to the sublime” (a description of the 40th Symphony that could also apply to this work) to confront its myriad facets. And a reluctance to accept the full expressive possibilities inherent in the use of tone colours, inflections and nuances to indicate variations in atmosphere in all movements, not least the desolate Andante, short-changes the emotional aura of the music. Podger & Co play safe. Not so Maxim Vengerov and, better still, Nikolaus Harnoncourt. They take risks to communicate what they passionately feel about this wide-ranging magnum opus.