Not just a piano virtuoso of steely right-hand brilliance, Yefim Bronfman also uses his left hand – to accentuate bass-lines and generate harmonic tension. Add a pliant touch, sagaciously pointed modulations, a sensibility that avoids meaningless note-spinning, and Mozart’s E flat Piano Quartet acquires a significance that brushes aside a belief that the work is not quite in the same league as its better-known G minor companion. Bronfman’s questing, thoughtful view of the music is also reflected in his choice of tempi that are spaciously dynamic in the outer movements, lyrically so in the central Larghetto.

His partners, led by Pinchas Zukerman, do not row against the tide, so to speak, either in this work or in the Trout Quintet. Spacious dynamism, now tailored to Schubert’s demands, is again heard from the beginning. The first movement may not be Allegro vivace in terms of speed but vivacity is conveyed by a buoyantly undulating pulse underpinned by a resilient double bass. Bronfman the expressive artist avoids empty rhetoric and shapes phrases, particularly those of the Andante, most affectingly; and his sensitivity to the requirements of chamber music shows in his willingness to adopt a low profile when called for, eg Vars 2 and 5 of the fourth movement.

Though balance and timbres are very good, the acoustic is mildly shut in; and the restricted ambience may be responsible for a want of very soft sounds from the strings. Otherwise a rewarding disc.