123. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Violin Sonatas ( 1763-88)

Recording

Title: Complete Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin Volume 2
Performers: Gary Cooper (fortepiano) Rachel Podger (violin)
Year: 2005
Length: 1 hour 13 minutes

Review

A great way to start off Mozart, this recording is representative of his output for this type of sonata, it goes all the way from KV7 when Mozart was about 7 or 8 years old to KV481 a late sonata, and the next to last one.

There are several interesting points here, firstly you do get a sense of evolution, the latest sonata is definitely the best one, almost approaching Beethoven at times, with a particularly beautiful Adagio. But you also get the sense that even the stuff he was doing by age 8 are pretty great. Now to what level did his father help him with the composition is uncertain.

Another little interesting titbit you get is the fact that his earlier sonatas here (KV7 and KV30) are much more tailored to showing off the piano than the Violin, and this is an evidence of what Mozart would have sounded like showing himself off across the courts of Europe at the piano accompanied by his father in the violin. A truly great sample of some really beautiful works.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

During Mozart's formative years, his family made several European journeys in which the children were exhibited as child prodigies. These began with an exhibition in 1762 at the Court of the Elector of Bavaria in Munich, then in the same year at the Imperial Court in Vienna and Prague. A long concert tour spanning three and a half years followed, taking the family to the courts of Munich, Mannheim, Paris, London, The Hague, again to Paris, and back home via Zürich, Donaueschingen, and Munich. During this trip Mozart met a great number of musicians and acquainted himself with the works of other composers. A particularly important influence was Johann Christian Bach, who met Mozart in London in 1764–65. The family again went to Vienna in late 1767 and remained there until December 1768.

The adagio of KV 481, not by Rachel Podger and Gary Cooper, but cute: