Mozart: Violin Sonata No. 17 in C major, K296

According to legend, Mozart was so rushed when writing K379 and K454 that he was forced to première the pieces with incomplete piano parts. Paying homage to this spirit of spontaneity in a programme of some of Mozart's most beloved chamber works, Petra Müllejans and Kristian Bezuidenhout present a reading of these pieces that recaptures the freshness and volatility of those early performances.

This CD marks the beginning of a new small side-line for CAvi of performances on period instruments. There will just be two or three titles per year. Giorgio Tabacco is harpsichord professor at Turin’s Giusseppe Verdi Conservatory. Francesco d’Orazio is a brilliant and versatile violinist who was awarded the Abbiati Prize XXIX of the Italian Music Critics in 2009.

Mozart wrote these sonatas as violin sonatas, which were published in Hamburg and Paris around 1800 as an arrangement for flute and piano. The arrangement heard on this album is a new adaptation by Shigeko Fukui-Fauser. It was derived from the original edition of the violin sonatas (Henle Verlag) and adapted for the flute. The approach was to come closer to Mozart‘s musical spirit – piano sonatas with lead instrumental extension – than in the Paris edition and to free the music from historical dogma.

Catherine Mackintosh and Geoffrey Govier formed Duo Amadè in order to perform the charming and intimate works of Mozart for this combination in concert, often with readings from his family letters. In 2006 Duo Amadè performed the whole cycle at the Royal College of Music.

The first set of Duo Sonatas was released in late 2008 and received a Gramophone Editor’s Choice in praise of its musicality and ‘historically informed performance’. Mackintosh in particular has long been recognised as one of the pioneering early music protagonists and is fulfilling the ambition of a lifetime with the complete cycle of Duo Sonatas.

Duo Amadè once again offers a charming and intimate performance, presenting the Opus 1 sonatas KV 296, 304, 305 and 306 written in 1778 when sonatas for the piano ‘accompanied’ by a violin were then all the rage.

Geoffrey Govier 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.

“I have nothing but praise for Tasmin Little's acutely judged sonority as well as the actual beauty of her tone.” Gramophone

The internationally renowned violinist, Tasmin Little, was recently awarded the prestigious 2008 Classic FM / Gramophone Award for Audience Innovation in recognition of the overwhelming success of ‘The Naked Violin’ – the world’s first free classical CD download. Spurred on by the success of this pioneering recording she has created a further imaginative CD concept ‘Partners in Time’ with the pianist John Lenehan. ‘Partners in Time’ looks at the music written for violin and piano throughout history and reveals the way in which different composers wrote for this partnership. The recording features works by Kreisler, Bach, Mozart, Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Bartók in a varied recital programme that has the feeling of a live concert.

This new release is the first in a series of recordings for BIS which will form a sustained programme of audience development for the violin’s superb and varied repertoire.

As with ‘The Naked Violin’, listeners will have the opportunity to experience the different timbres of the two beautiful and historic instruments Little plays: the “Regent” Stradivarius of 1708, on loan from the Royal Academy of Music, and her own instrument, a 1757 Guadagnini.

“Little's sincerity made for a gripping performance, her playing well-controlled yet touched with a hint of abandon…” The Strad

The Duo partnership of Gary Cooper and Rachel Podger has taken them worldwide. Their recordings of Mozart’s Complete Sonatas for Keyboard & Violin have received countless awards and accolades.

Rachel Podger is widely recognised as one of the great violinists of her time – she won a Gramophone Award for her recording of Vivaldi’s La Stravaganza in 2003.

Gary Cooper is established as one of the foremost ambassadors of the harpsichord and fortepiano - in particular, as an interpreter of Bach’s & Mozart’s keyboard music.