Not for Geoffrey Govier and Catherine Mackintosh is the slow movement of K376 “a dreamy reverie in the form of an Andante, an exquisite instrumental song” – a description fittingly upheld by Clara Haskil and Arthur Grumiaux in 1958; but a prominently placed violin devalues Mozart’s distribution of the parts because this (like all 32 he completed) is a sonata for piano and violin. In these new performances, a vibrato-less leanness replaces the dreamy and the exquisite; and though the balance is a little biased towards the violin, Govier’s copy of a 1795 Anton Walter fortepiano cuts through.

The tuning in unequal temperament adds a degree of asperity as well. Try the second movement of K378 and the usual understanding of the direction Andante sostenuto e cantabile is likely to be stretched. No conventionally sweet or sustained violin line, no smoothly flowing keyboard realisation. Intriguingly Gary Cooper coaxes a different sound from his copy of a 1795 Walter and with Rachel Podger plays in a manner that would be considered less intimidating. So it’s people not instruments. And Duo Amadè doesn’t flinch from immoderate demands, for instance the first-movement development of this same sonata where they offer a searing exposé of the series of modulations beginning in F minor. It’s sinewy, and sinew binds every movement in these sonatas. Here’s Mozart interpretation in the raw, not overlaid with effusive graciousness, neither apologetically insipid nor crude, but very expressive on its own terms. Listen and ponder. These are committed performances throughout.