The Mozart Sonata KV 454 is clearly geared for virtuosos of both the piano and the violin. The violin part is on the same level of importance as the piano and not merely an accessory to it. But the B-flat Sonata is a composition of real stature, a gem of a work, as striking for its musical substance as for its dashing instrumental beauty.
Mozart biographer Alfred Einstein likened the Sonata’s introduction to a triumphal arch through which one passes on their way to the majestic Allegro. In the movement proper, as in the entire Sonata, the interplay of the duo is concerto-like in the best Mozartean manner, which is to say each instrument has a life very much its own, the writing allowing for equal amounts of independence and joyous compatibility.
The Andante is the Sonata’s centerpiece, achieving a scope and depth beyond that which a Viennese audience would expect in a violin sonata.
But the finale really turns out to be Mozart’s key of joy and serenity.
Here are Paul Badura-Skoda and David Oistrakh to take you on this journey:
