No susurrating strings at the beginning of K466. Claudio Abbado ensures that the syncopated rhythm, though soft, is precisely articulated, more so than is usually heard. Horns and trumpets don’t pierce the texture; they simply reinforce it. Drama isn’t over-pitched, tension doesn’t slacken. The conducting is intelligently alive, in quality reminiscent of Benjamin Britten (for Clifford Curzon) and Sándor Végh (for András Schiff). Maria João Pires enters into the prevailing mood, her artistry as thoughtful as of yore. The Romanze may seem fleet but the time signature is alla breve and Pires shows that expressive sensitivity isn’t confined to a slow tempo; nor, conversely, that the agitated middle section needs to be speeded up to make its effect.

Recorded balance is particularly good. Some of the cadenzas – by Beethoven and Mozart – are, as usual, pulled forward but otherwise the piano is in proper perspective and the all-important woodwind aren’t obscured. Alla breve returns in the Larghetto of K595; and if the chosen tempo (plus Pires’s decorated lines) jolts traditional notions of valediction, it also supports a reasonable belief that the first two movements were written in 1788, the third maybe closer to the work’s premiere in March 1791. Yet Pires and Abbado see this movement as pretty sprightly, with no premonitions of death. A mild reservation is that the orchestra is perhaps too large. Reduced forces might have enhanced the concerto’s intimate character. It’s a small point. These absorbing, penetrating performances deserve the widest currency.