Mozart: Violin Sonata No. 18 in G major, K301

Mozart’s charming and intimate late violin sonatas KV 301, 302 and 303, composed in Mannheim in 1778 are performed here on period instruments by Duo Amadè (Catherine Mackintosh and Geoffrey Govier) and coupled with two sets of variations based on French popular tunes.

Mackintosh and Govier have a love for this repertoire which stretches back to the late 1980s when they first met at the Royal College of Music, London. They formed Duo Amadè in order to perform the charming and intimate works of Mozart for this combination in concert often carried out with readings from his family letters. In 2006 Duo Amadè performed the whole cycle at the Royal College of Music.

Violinist Catherine Mackintosh is best known as the former leader of Orchestra of Age of Enlightenment and part of the Purcell Quartet. She is joined by fortepianist Geoffrey Govier. Geoffrey plays a fortepiano after Anton Walter made by Christopher Clare in Cluny while Catherine plays a violin dating from 1703 by Giovanni Grancino. These instruments bring a lightness and freshness of articulation to these delightful works, entirely in keeping with the spirit of enlightenment in which the sonatas were written. It is their aim is to record the complete cycle of mature sonatas.