Andrew Manze, Richard Egarr

Anyone who loves Mozart, which is to say everyone who loves music, will find this new album a delight. These sonatas for violin and piano date from 1781, the year their composer was fired from his concertmaster job by the grouchy Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. From there, Mozart moved in with the Weber family in Vienna and began his bumpy career as a freelance composer. His Viennese publication debut featured a set of violin sonatas, which includes these four pieces. They melodically exhibit the graceful lyricism and rhythmic bounce of his operatic arias. One of the sonatas is a restored fragment, written while Mozart was courting his future wife, Constanze Weber, and it’s believed this music was to be dedicated to her. Violinist Andrew Manze and pianist Richard Egarr perform beautifully.