Dejan Lazić explains how Mozart was the cause of his becoming a musician – upon seeing the film Amadeus, no less – and how the composer became a constant in his musical life. ‘This recording’, he continues, ‘has a truly special meaning for me … as it gave me the opportunity to reunite with my wonderful longtime friends with whom I first played in the 1990s when I was living in Salzburg and studying at the Mozarteum.’

True chamber music-making, then: a conversation between friends in the purest sense. Only a balance that fractionally favours piano over the strings mars the palpable sense of give and take between these four musicians – and that’s far from Lazić’s fault, as he demonstrates throughout these performances a remarkable fidelity to Mozart’s markings and is more than capable of fining down his sound to a genuine pianissimo. It’s less evident in the more lyrical E flat Trio (K493) but in the terser G minor (K478), the violin especially sounds constrained when it should soar over the texture.

Otherwise, there is much to enjoy, from the subtle agogic pauses in the E flat’s opening movement to the cheeky little touches of ornamentation added in reprises by all four players but especially by Lazić. The intensity this quartet foster in the slow movements is then released by the lighter-hearted badinage of the finales. As an envoi, Lazić offers his own arrangement for piano and quartet of the finale of the B flat Piano Sonata, K333, in the manner of Mozart’s own chamber arrangements of his earliest Viennese concertos – and most effective it is, too.