Mozart's concertos for two and three pianos and orchestra, written at Salzburg in the latter half of the 1770s, might not rank among his most sublime and psychologically penetrating creations, but they are splendid fun and full of vivacious music. The Concerto in E flat for two pianos (K365), probably written for the composer to perform alongside his sister Nannerl, is here given in two versions, the second with added clarinets, trumpets and timpani. It is uncertain that the additional parts are Mozart's but it is nonetheless a good opportunity to compare and contrast the versions (the fuller arrangement certainly has a proto-Beethovenian aura).

Ronald Brautigam and Alexei Lubimov conjure sparkling interplay between their fortepianos and there is certainly no ploy to pass off their instruments as soft and discreet ancestors of the modern Steinway; one senses each soloist relishing the distinctive timbre of their modern copies of an instrument by the Viennese piano-maker Anton Walther (presumably much like the one that Mozart himself owned and used for his public piano concerto performances). There is a kind of elastic flexibility in the articulation of their solo passages quite different from the smooth lyricism one would expect in more polite and glossy conventional performances. The Haydn Sinfonietta of Vienna produce forthright performances. Director Manfred Huss also performs the third piano part in K242, and supervises without fuss.

Perhaps there is not the dynamic orchestral subtlety and life-affirming character one finds in the revelatory performance of K365 by Anima Eterna (Zig Zag Territoires, 8/06), but these performances are crisp, rhythmically propelled, full of movement and invested with bold energy.