In embarking on a Mozart concerto cycle, Jeremy Menuhin is pitting himself against the likes of Brendel, Uchida (both Philips), Schiff (Decca) and Perahia (Sony). On the strength of this first instalment, he is a non-starter. Menuhin is a perfectly decent pianist, with a certain no-nonsense directness. But time and again in these works he fails to locate the fine line between plain-speaking and dullness.

The English Symphony Orchestra – routine, often heavy (bass-lines tend to plod mechanically), sometimes ill-tuned (listen to the strings in the Andante of K415, or the woodwind in the first Allegro of K414 or the finale of K488) – make uninspiring collaborators. Tempi throughout are on the slow side, often ponderously so, and dynamics often hover around the median level. I’ve never heard such an un-vivacious Allegro vivace in the first movement of K449. In the hands of any of the pianists mentioned above, this a wonderfully varied and volatile piece, with repeated hints of a comic opera imbroglio. Menuhin plays the notes musically, no more, with little apparent awareness of the movement’s changing perspectives.

In slow movements Menuhin shows a certain generalised sensitivity but none of the finesse and operatic eloquence of his rivals. In the sorrowful F sharp minor Adagio of K488, the music briefly lightens into A major for a serenading episode à la Così fan tutte. The finest performers introduce a new tone of voice, new colours, here. Brendel even manages a hint of playfulness. Menuhin and his wind accomplices, by contrast, make a thoroughly dour bunch of serenaders (it is typical that Menuhin, unlike Brendel and others, leaves the notorious wide leaps at the end of the movement unadorned).

As to the finales, if you want wit, sparkle, delighted repartee, then look elsewhere. The finale of K488 should come as a glorious physical release after the disconsolate close of the Adagio, the piano bounding in with a whoop of delight. At a tempo more like Allegro moderato than Allegro assai, Menuhin turns the music into an amiable jog-trot. Enough said. A depressing and superfluous set.