MOZART Piano & Violin Sonatas

 

Mitsuko Uchida

Mark Steinberg

 

SONATA IN F MAJOR, K377

1          i. Allegro

2          ii. Tema con variazioni; Andante

3          iii. Tempo di menuetto

 

SONATA IN C MAJOR, K303

4          i. Adagio – Molto allegro

5          ii. Tempo di menuetto

 

SONATA IN E MINOR, K304

6          i. Allegro

7          ii Tempo di menuetto

 

SONATA IN A MAJOR, K526

8          I Molto allegro

9          II Andante

10         III Presto

 

It says much for the Steinberg/Uchida partnership that they need fear no comparisons with the greatest interpreters of this sublime music. The American violinist may be less famous than Grumiaux or Szeryng, but he shares their scrupulousness of style and enjoys, in Uchida, a partner to rank only with Clara Haskil for sheer imagination, wit and depth of feeling. Almost everything here is chamber music at its highest level, but Steinberg and Uchida are especially spellbinding in the heavenly lengths of the theme-and-variations slow movement of the F major sonata, K377, and its counterpart in the A major sonata, K526. Steinberg describes the opening adagio-molto allegro of the C major work as “a bizarre amalgam of an opera aria and a piano concerto”, and the spirit of opera buffa and the great Viennese piano concertos is never far from these performances. Of the four sonatas recorded here, only the mournful, turbulent E minor work is well known, but Steinberg and Uchida make the strongest possible case for all of this music. One hopes that this miraculous disc is the first volume of a complete set. Buy, buy, buy and it might be.

Times Five stars

 

Philips SACD 4756200