The brief K8 Sonata is one of three that the eight-year-old Mozart played for Louis XV with his father on the harpsichord. No great statement in comparison with one of the masterpieces here, say K454, but amazingly original given Mozart’s tender age, with a bright, strutting minuet-finale that Gary Cooper and Rachel Podger throw off with winning mock-insouciance. All the accolades heaped upon these two are fully justified: the playfulness, the teamwork, the unanimity of gesture and appreciation of musical line, especially from Podger. Cooper’s poetic responses are nicely displayed at the start of K380’s Andante con moto: the way he manipulates the instrument’s potential for shifting colours, bold and resonant to start, then at the theme’s return at 2'09" with a more muted sound. Podger sails an expressively curved top line, largely (though not exclusively) sans vibrato. There’s real sparkle to the opening Allegro of K28, composed in The Hague by the quickly developing 10-year-old, JC Bach by now a discernible influence. The first movement of K402 recalls Don Giovanni’s Minuet (it was written during roughly the same period) while K404, though thematically memorable, barely makes the four-minute mark.

K454 is the masterpiece, the most substantial work and the most Romantic in style. Podger and Cooper employ their period-performance manners to pleasing effect, especially in the serene Andante and the keenly accented Allegretto. No need to catalogue the likely reservations of those who stay loyal to Heifetz, Grumiaux, Goldberg, and so on, in this repertoire; you know who you are and, on occasion, I’ll be happy to join you. But for now I’m quite won over by these fresh, thoroughly accomplished and well recorded performances.