Robert Mattthew-Walker, writing in the International Record Review of Craig Sheppard's recordings of the final three Schubert piano sonata, writes: “Sheppard delivers performances of the highest intellectual, emotional and technical mastery as he reveals the Holy Grail which are these immortal masterpieces. … I can only urge genuine Schubertians to hear and preferably acquire this landmark release”.

Pretty clear: thumbs well up from Mr Matthew-Walker. I was all set to click my mouse and acquire the set when: “A volatile and uneven artist, Sheppard finds himself out of sorts with Schubert's ultimate genius … Subject to the scrutiny of the microphones, all three performances show a roughness and lack of finesse … this is hard to recommend”, writes Bryce Morrison in The Gramophone.

The perfect answer, of course, is to pay out £20 or so and listen to the sonatas and make up one's own mind. But it would be useful to have a little reliable guidance, from time to time. After all, is that not what record critics are paid for? And just to drag record critics through the mire once again: writing in Classica about the much-admired (especially by me) recording of the first Shostakovich violin concerto by Lisa Batiashvili, Bertrand Dermoncourt dismisses the CD with “alas, total disillusionment”. He doesn't like the programme, he finds Batiashvili “too well integrated with the orchestra”, he doesn't like the recording, he doesn't like the conductor. His choice, ignoring all the excellent performances from Khachatryan, Josefowicz, Repin, Vengerov et al is for a fifty-year old recording by Oistrakh. Well, I can strike Monsieur Dermoncourt off the list of those whose opinions I find to be of interest. But what about Mr Matthew-Walker and Mr Morrison? Which one of those do I listen to?