A Dutch violinist and Hungarian viola player and cellist coalesce around the Irish pianist Finghin Collins in Mozart’s two piano quartets – works that, for all their myriad wonders, perhaps aren’t heard as much as they should be. One wonders if such a pleasure was bestowed last year on Irish audiences, as these players have collaborated as chamber musicians in festivals there; perhaps this recording was the result of one such performance. The feeling of a well-established association is certainly evident here.

The recording venue, St Peter’s Church of Ireland in Drogheda (along with Claves’ engineering), allows more space around each instrument than the Pierre Boulez Saal and DG in Berlin for Barenboim père et fils and friends but the tonal integration achieved as a result is a worthwhile dividend. After a perhaps slightly mannered opening to the G minor First Quartet, the expansive Allegro unfolds with unrestrained inevitability. The playfulness of both finales is presented without gimmick and the slow movements are not unduly indulged.

This is thus a more intimate performance than the Barenboim: the four players play for each other, rather than for the back wall of the building. Yet the music is not undersold as a result. Balance and poise, rather than any hint of grandstanding, become the order of the day here in a recording that feels the more special for its shying away from playing to the gallery, allowing these two wonderful pieces to reveal their secrets gently and attractively.