Mozart - Complete Sonatas for Keyboard & Violin Vols. 7 & 8 - Rachel Podger & Gary Cooper - Channel Classics CCS SA 28109 (2009) SACD rip via PS3 to iso (6.21GB) | Mch & 2ch Hybrid | 2ch DR13 & DR14 | Classical Baroque DSD recording :) A Producer's Note Before embarking upon these recordings of Mozart's complete duo music for piano and violin, my experience of many of these works was as a typical post-war listener. That is to say, these were sonatas for violin and these should be performed only one at a time, usually as a good way to limber up the bowing arm and lubricate the fingers before the serious recital 'material' began. The journey of a producer in such a project - apart from all the generic responsibilities of supervising the sessions, ensuring all the music is covered and choosing the 'takes' which constitute the final product - involves regularly questioning the underlying motivation for wanting to communicate these pieces in a certain way. Both Gary Cooper and Rachel Podger have discovered a particular essence in this music, which has illuminated our understanding of the genre in Mozart's hands. For this reason, this is a radical series. For some, it may lack a tradition of the kind of structured and cultured elan which Szymon Goldberg and Radu Lupu perpetuated (produced by that wonderful Decca doyen of the dark art, Christopher Raeburn) but for others it will lift the dialogue and characterisation onto new and irradiating levels. Of course, each volume has its own narrative and how brilliantly Gary has managed to programme early (some very early!), middle and late sonatas in ways which allow one to understand Mozart's various ploys and distinctive ambitions in this music. In an ideally balanced oeuvre, one wishes there were another three big mid-to-late works. Yet what this series has done is highlight the care Mozart took in the refinement of sonatas or variations 'to order'- a touching insight into awareness of capability, perhaps individual characters of performers, and that delectable turn of domestic tenderness which these pieces often exhibit. These two players bring these intimacies to bear wonderfully and, as producer, I had great fun working with them to find the shifting moods in music whose unpretentiousness belies the supreme quality of most of these works. Indeed, some of the sonata are far greater than I had imagined. If the piano sonatas (well, say the last ten) draw upon microcosms of allusion and reference to fellow instruments and their idioms (serenades and the like), then these 'high end' piano-violin sonatas take trips which almost exceed their bounds - think of those great long adagios. So, my lasting impression, having dissected every note of the music, is of a cornucopia of hidden gems; hidden because history has under-rated, misunderstood and bowdlerized the collective meaning of these works by assuming that it is an uneven genre - but then so are the symphonies and even the operas! Finally, one asks why there hasn't previously been a complete recording on historical instruments. From my 'privileged' position as listener-in-chief, I can tell you it is because no pair can make such transparent and difficult music sound so effortless, elegant, witty, emotionally persuasive and enjoyable. Gramophone.co.uk review: This issue completes Cooper’s and Podger’s collected recordings of Mozart’s music for keyboard and violin. At first sight, Volumes 7 and 8 might seem to consist of leftovers – Vol 8 devoted to a set of six sonatas (K10-15) written in London when Mozart was eight, and Vol 7, apart from the two variation sets composed shortly after he settled in Vienna, containing a sonata dating from his 1766 stay in The Hague, plus two fragments, completed after Mozart’s death by Maximilian Stadler. In the event, however, both CDs are full of interest. For the “London” Sonatas, Cooper plays a fine-sounding Kirckman harpsichord dating from the exact period of Mozart’s English visit. With it he can make the most of the youthful virtuoso’s ebullient keyboard invention, the textures further enriched by the inclusion of the optional cello part. One may have some doubts about the complete authenticity of Mozart’s early sonatas (surviving manuscripts are in father Leopold’s hand), but in K13, for example, the startlingly elaborate opening movement, the plaintive minor-key Andante that follows and the extraordinary chromatic minuet all indicate an amazing emerging talent. On the other disc, the K372 Allegro is given pride of place. Mozart left a sonata exposition that would have been the beginning of a magnificent work. If Stadler’s completion lacks a Mozartian sense of tonal architecture, its sound world is extremely convincing and provides a necessary context for the “genuine” music. Stadler completed K396 as a solo piano piece (the 27-bar fragment has only four bars of violin part). The result, in Cooper’s words, is “a most personal tribute”, and played here with much feeling and imagination. Cooper and Podger perform the variations with typical verve; the many repeated sections provide opportunities for ornamentation, especially in K359, where Mozart obligingly indicates a pause – with the possibility of a mini cadenza – in each variation. I find I don’t always agree with Cooper’s and Podger’s interpretation – exaggerated drawing-out of many of the minuets’ cadences, for instance – but it’s impossible to ignore the individuality, vitality and commitment of their performances. Tracks: 01. Allegro in B flat major, KV 372 Mozart - 08:05 02. 6 Variations in G minor, 'Hélas, j'ai perdu mon amant', KV 374b Mozart 11:12 Sonata in E Flat major, KV 26 - 08:27 03. Allegro molto Mozart 02:49 04. Adagio poco Andante Mozart 02:53 05. Rondeaux Mozart 02:44 06. Fantasia in C minor for Piano, KV 396 Mozart 10:29 07. 12 Variations in G major, 'La Bergère Célimène', KV 374a Mozart 17:03 Sonata in B Flat Major, KV 10 - 13:58 08. Allegro Mozart 04:55 09. Andante Mozart 05:32 10. Menuetto I and II Mozart 03:30 Sonata in G Major, KV 11 - 10:09 11. Andante Mozart 03:58 12. Allegro Mozart 02:14 13. Menuetto - Allegro Mozart 03:56 Sonata in A Major, KV 12 -06:38 14. Andante Mozart 04:16 15. Allegro Mozart 02:21 Sonata in F Major, KV 13 - 13:47 16. Allegro Mozart 05:13 17. Andante Mozart 06:05 18. Menuetto I & II Mozart 02:28 Sonata in C Major, KV 14 - 10:38 19. Allegro Mozart 04:41 20. Allegro Mozart 02:52 21. Menuetto I & II 'Carillon' Mozart 03:05 Sonata in B Flat Major, KV 15 - 09:43 22. Andante maestoso Mozart 06:59 23. Allegro grazioso Mozart 02:44 Time: 01:59:48 Musicians: Rachel Podger - violin Gary Cooper - fortepiano/harpsichord Alison McGillivray - cello Instruments: violin: Pesarinius 1739 harpsichord: Jacob Kirckman 1766 fortepiano: AntonWalter,Vienna 1795; copy by Derek Adlam 1987 Recording: St. Martin’s Church, East Woodhay, Berkshire, UK (vol.7) St. John the Evangelist Church, Upperwood, London, UK (vol.8) Recording dates: April 2008 (vol. 7), Jan 2009 (vol. 8) Digital Converters: Meitner DSD /AD/DA Mastering Engineer: Jared Sacks Mastering Equipment: B+W 803 diamond series Microphones: Bruel & Kjaer, Schoeps Mixing Board: Rens Heijnis custom made Producer: Jonathan Attwood Recording Engineer: Jared Sacks Recording location: Upperwood London, England Recording Software: Pyramix Recording Type & Bit Rate: DSD64 Speakers: Audiolab, Holland For those that missed the other volumes they are here: https://enjoy.themusichere.in/category/classical-artists/gary-cooper/ http://www.filefactory.com/folder/491218f70764fe1e ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Checksums for 2x iso: 779d042692c8eeee2ea97d7b847b3495 *Mozart Complete Sonatas vol. 7.iso acd2e314b08dcca1f1922eed9c883a92 *Mozart Complete Sonatas vol. 8.iso