Mozart/ Nishizaki/ Loeb - Violin Sonatas No 15 & 16

Japanese violinist Takako Nishizaki (the daughter of the cofounder of the Suzuki Method, we learn) gets top billing on this disc, part of a complete series of Mozart's sonatas for violin and piano. But for much of the disc, American pianist Benjamin Loeb actually has more to do. The Sonata No. 16 for violin and piano, K. 547, is subtitled "a little piano sonata for beginners, with a violin." Written around the same time as the Piano Sonata in C major, K. 545, that most young pianists learn, this work lacks the unity of it's more famous counterpart. By this point in his career, Mozart was writing violin-and-piano sonatas in which the two instruments played equal roles, but the act of writing a student work seems to have made the composer think in the old-fashioned terms of a piano sonata with optional violin. The K. 547 sonata and the 12 Variations in G major on the French song "La bergère Célimène," K. 359 are rarely heard, and it's useful for violinists to have them on hand. But the rather dry performance by Nishizaki and Loeb doesn't catch their easy charm. On the other hand, the pair delivers a very strong performance of the one real masterwork on the disc, the concluding Sonata No. 15 in A major, K. 526.. Performing on conventional instruments, they sound somewhat like the classic duo of Henryk Szerying and Ingrid Haebler, seeking smoothness and balance in Mozart over sentimental effect. In the dense, difficult A major sonata, their approach is well considered and nicely executed. This would be an odd choice for a single disc of Mozart violin-and-piano sonatas, but as part of a series it scores well with the major work on the program.