Mozart - Complete sonatas for keyboard and violin, volume 4:
- Sonata in Eb K 302
- Sonata in G K 9
- Sonata in E minor K304
- Sonata in D K 29
- Sonata in A K 526
Rachel Podger
Gary Cooper
Channel Classics CCSSA24607

Release date May 2007

Gary Cooper and Rachel Podger’s period-instrument survey of Mozart’s Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin is rapidly turning into one of the finest Mozart series on the market. The coupling of youthful and more mature works on the same disc makes for interesting listening - as here, where the grace and charm of the eight-year-old composer’s Sonata in G, K.9 is astonishing. The bright persistence of the Sonata in D, K.29 is more obviously the work of a ten-year-old, but the bubbly, effervescent Allegro and tender Rondeau of the E flat sonata that opens the disc clearly spring from an older Mozart’s pen. The disc closes with his penultimate violin sonata, written in Vienna in 1787 and conceived on a much grander scale. The lovely tone of Cooper’s fortepiano, Podger’s elegant yet playful style and the lively interplay between the two musicians make this a winning disc in all senses!

Reviewed by Anne McAlister