The Concerto in F major, K459, played on the harp! Is it possible? The last of the six (Nos 14-19) composed miraculously in the same year, 1784, is one in which the solo part, as Sony’s photogenic soloist observes, ‘tends to exploit the upper end of the keyboard, a register in which the harp sounds strikingly clear and bell-like in tone’. Interestingly, he has found ‘that the first two movements of K459 are easier to perform than is the case with the Concerto for Flute and Harp’ while noting it would be impossible to play the concerto note for note on a harp of Mozart’s time.

Does it work? Triumphantly so, if you can temporarily erase from your memory Schnabel, Larrocha and Perahia inter alios. De Maistre produces such a wide range of colour and dynamics, executing tapered phrase-endings and ornaments with astonishing ease, and all with such elegance, that the ear is very quickly persuaded into thinking that this is an original harp concerto. The same applies to the popular C major Sonata (the so-called but far-from Sonate facile), leaving one wondering how a harpist plays an allegro Alberti bass and the melody line simultaneously. In between comes the oft-recorded Concerto for Flute and Harp, in which de Maistre is joined by the graceful Magali Mosnier. Has the lovely theme of the Andantino been more caressingly yet unsentimentally recorded? I doubt it. Ivor Bolton and his players are the ideal partners in the two concertos (with some juicy contributions from the horns). Altogether a most successful disc.