Mozart’s Flute Quartets played on recorders? Unusual but not improbable; and Michala Petri, who uses recorders in three different pitches, is likely to disarm resistance or hostility. She chooses a sopranino instrument for K298. But no shrill piping, no phlegmatic phrasing. The first movement is a theme and four variations, the overall marking Andantino implying a single tempo. But as Mozart offers each musician an individual role in each of the four variations, Petri treats the components as separate facets of a single entity. She relaxes or tightens the pace as necessary without compromising unity; and no one hogs the limelight. These artists know when to blend, separate or step forward without upstaging one another. The return to the theme at the end, not in the score and therefore “unauthorised” is, nevertheless, a thoughtful interpretative touch.

Yoshimi Oshima is very much the virtuoso with an excellent command of a modern flute. Unlike Petri, who is integrated with her colleagues, Oshima is balanced as a soloist and the members of the Kocian Quartet are right of stage. His view of this same movement is forthright, his tone monotonous both in terms of timbre and dynamic shading. He sticks to a rigid pulse too, and in the second movement makes no attempt to differentiate between the softer Trio (marked dolce) and its earthy Minuet. Petri does so with a sensuousness that she also carries over into the finale, recognising its grazioso element that passes Oshima by.

Rather depressingly, Oshima plays the other quartets in a similar fashion. He offers some decoration in places (with appoggiature that are realised unconventionally though not wrongly) but that doesn’t compensate for a generalised style and a lack of imagination. The string-players, faithfully following suit, add to the prosaic and colourless qualities of these performances. Strangely, the Praga Camerata, directed by the Kocian’s leader Pavel Hula, offers more refinement and nuance in the Flute Concerto, K313, to which Oshima responds better. The sound on this disc is good, but Petri and Co – also in SACD yet more alluringly recorded – call the shots.