Leif Ove Andsnes is one of those pianists who realises that Mozart’s bravura passages aren’t just showing-off. It’s clear from how he plays those runs of rapid semiquavers that he has a sense of where they are going, why they are going there, and when they should arrive: that gives his playing a clear sense of direction and the music a notably strong and functional shape.

The Jeunehomme, the first of the truly great concertos, has a fresh and purposeful reading, informed by many imaginative touches, for example in the cadenza of the first movement, and in the minuet enfolded within the finale. The main part of the finale is pretty quick and clearly articulated, but he very properly doesn’t resist the temptation to be gentle and leisurely with the minuet section. In the C minor Andantino, too, there is much happy detail and sensitive timing, all naturally and expressively played, with no exaggerated rhetoric.

The variation slow movement of K456 is also very successful, in spite of some unsteadiness of the pulse; expressive detail is beautifully handled (listen, for example, to Variation 1) and the niceties of balance with the busy wind section in a movement of exceptional textural variety and ingenuity are happily managed. The first movement is remarkable for its Figaro- like wind writing, its detail and its variety of dialogue. The finale is duly exuberant. Throughout, he plays a continuo part in the tuttis, as Mozart did; and he uses Mozart’s cadenzas, sometimes ingeniously drawing on alternative ones and joining bits together.

The disc from Fazil Say starts promisingly, with a graceful tutti at the beginning of K414 from the Zürich Chamber Orchestra. But that doesn’t seem to be the kind of performance Fazil Say has in mind. His playing, forthright and wanting in subtlety, shows limited awareness of the character of the music. But it is competent pianism, if one can get on terms with his habit of unsynchronised attack between the hands. The finale, perkily done, is the best thing here.

K467 goes rather better: Say is fluent in the first movement’s demanding passagework, but his frequent adding of octaves in the second and third movements seems to show a lack of understanding of how Mozart expected piano and orchestra to relate; and the grotesque cadenzas, with hints of a Mozartian sugar-plum fairy, baffle me. The first movement of K488 has some more graceful and poised playing but Say often hurries the rhythms, cutting rests and making the music tumble forward. The finale is hasty and breathless. The recording seems to capture some humming and a lot of gentle thumps, I imagine from the pedal mechanism.