The story was bizarre, but the evidence was firm. Ulli stayed silent for a minute once Jelly had finished explaining. Tovey had mentioned the ‘spirit messages’, but he hadn’t realised how certain, how unquestioning of them the d’Arányi sisters would be. Of course, he knew people at home who would also have believed this tale without a moment’s hesitation; unfortunately some of those same people had been quick to sign up to National Socialism, filled as it was with esoteric symbols – an inverted Indian emblem, for goodness’ sake – and a system of mythology about ‘Aryans’ that, however fictional, was inducing otherwise intelligent beings to swallow its excesses. Ulli had spent summer evenings downing lager under the linden tree in the local Biergarten and listening, from a safe distance, to some of his neighbours talking in ways that made the idea of concerto-seeking messages from the souls of Schumann and Joachim seem refreshingly benevolent. But whatever implausible circumstances had brought it to light, the concerto was real and it needed someone to reach it and retrieve it, beyond the keepers of Clara’s flame.

‘I don’t understand how hiding it away can do any good,’ Jelly pointed out. ‘It’s as if they said: this is how it is, fin, and everybody accepts it. But it does not have to be this way. It’s their choice. If it turns out the piece is not good, that’s one matter. But they don’t know the truth! Not to look at it, not even to see what the reality is… ’

‘I couldn’t agree more. People wear blinkers – sometimes it makes life easier. And we all want to imagine Frau Clara as a musical saint who must have been infallible.’

A whiff of Jelly’s scent reached Ulli’s nostrils. His former fiancée had refused to wear any at all, saying that perfume made her sneeze. Jelly’s smelled like freshly cut grass in midsummer.

‘What would you like me to do?’ he said.

‘Ideally, fetch it from this library and publish it. Then I can be the first to play it. Ulli, there is so much pain and death and loss in this world, but here is one good thing we can do, one beautiful thing we could save. And we can save it together. We can bring it back to life! Wouldn’t that be wonderful?’