Mozart: Violin Sonatas [2005]

Customer Reviews:

wonderful playing, visually beautiful.......2007-01-27

I would agree with everything Scott Morrison says in his insightful review. These Mozart Sonatas are quite lovely, and they are presented here in an ideal setting - a most beautiful room which seems entirely right for the music - and with unfussy direction that never gets in the way of the music. As for the playing, I cannot imagine it being bettered. Ensemble is spot on, the performances have character, they are well paced and beautifully phrased and the sound is a delight to the ear. Mozart wrote the sonatas for piano and violin, not the other way round, and in fact the pianist has slightly more to do in all of them. Orli Shaham, more animated than her brother, is a marvellous player and the rapport between the two is striking. It is in every way a beautiful DVD.

An Evening of Elegantly Played Mozart Violin/Piano Sonatas.......2006-06-27

In his six sonatas for keyboard and violin (K.30106) written in 1778 and published in Paris, Mozart borrowed some features of Joseph Schuster's piano/violin divertimentos (which he praised in a letter of 6 October 1777 to his father, noting that they were very popular and thus he thought he'd write six pieces in the same style), notably in the structure of the first movement of K.303, where the Adagio introduction represents the first subject and recurs at the recapitulation. The sonatas exhibit a wide variety of styles and affects, ranging from the somber, somewhat eerie sonata in E minor K. 304 (the only minor key sonata of this group), to the virtually orchestral K.302. In the process he made an almost complete transition from the previous tendency for the violin sonata to be a piano sonata with violin accompaniment to one where the two instruments are equal partners.

In this elegantly played and filmed DVD we have those K.301-306 sonatas played by violinist Gil Shaham and his sister, pianist Orli Shaham, recorded in an ornately decorated room in the Palais Daun-Kinsky, Vienna. The two musicians have played together since childhood and it is clear that they are in close communication throughout. Although Shaham has probably made his name in the big violin concerto repertoire -- his playing of the Brahms concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic on an earlier DVD was outstanding -- he has also always been an avid chamber player and it is obvious that he understands the give and take of these sonatas. As for Orli, she is an extraordinarily sensitive player in this repertoire and one even has the sense that she sets the tone for the performances here. The pianissimi obtained by the two -- as in the Andante grazioso variation movement of K.305 -- are the kind that make you stop breathing and lean forward so as not to miss a note. Videography is discreet and inobtrusive. One does notice that although both musicians play from score one almost never sees Gil's music stand, leading one at first to think he is playing from memory. The fact is, neither player is glued to their score, and there is spontaneity evident throughout. Sound is excellent in all formats.

This is truly marvelous music-making and anyone interested in these works and these players would be well advised to view this DVD.

TT=99 mins; PCMStereo/DD5.1/DTS5.1

Scott Morrison

DVD Review:

DVD Review List

DVD Review