The seasoned pairing of Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov promises to match all comers in style and fantasy. From the puckish opening Allegro of K376…you’re aware of an eager creative partnership, with Faust and Melnikov delightedly seconding and undercutting each other… True spontaneity is elusive in the recording studio. Faust and Melnikov give the illusion, at least, that they are responding to and recreating the music on the spot. Roll on Vol 3.

Faust and Melnikov delight, dance and dream their way through the pages, she urgently dynamic, her lines cutting glassily through the texture, sparing in vibrato, he more than once finding a fire and energy not so far removed from the rougher-edged brilliance and temperament of Haydn or Beethoven. His clarity of articulation as he listens attentively to his partner, sculpting and tensioning each phrase with slight leanings on the beat, is a superior experience.

Melnikov’s playing avoids the “clattering noise” Mozart disliked in instruments other than those made by Andreas Stein (Walter’s teacher), and this musical partnership is now one of the most rewarding today.

Anyone who regards fortepianos only as clatter machines should listen to the delicacies coaxed by Melnikov from his modern reproduction of a 1795 original. Faust has her own wonder, a 1704 Stradivarius, often deployed in long singing lines that make some movements seem like operatic arias instrumentally arranged...Music and music-making of consummate wit, rainbow colours and ensemble panache. This album is an utter delight.