The latest instalment in what promises to be a complete cycle of Mozart's sonatas for keyboard and violin contains one work from the Paris/Mannheim group of 1778 and three composed in 1781, around the time of Mozart's final break with Archbishop Colloredo (though K378 may just date from a couple of years earlier). K305 is an engaging, inspiriting piece in two movements, confining the violin to an accompanying role throughout much of the opening Allegro but allowing it a share of the limelight in the variation second movement. The three more substantial later sonatas are conceived far more as true partnerships (contemporary reviews praised Mozart's ingenuity in this respect), and each is a work of strong individuality, most notably the E flat, K380, with its powerful, sonorous opening movement and haunting G minor Andante.
As on the previous disc in this series (EMI (CD) CDC7 49712-2, 9/89), Zimmermann and Lonquich reveal an intimate rapport in these sonatas, a creative yet selfless interplay that is the essence of true chamber music. Their playing throughout is marvellously fresh and natural, alive to the expressive variety of these sonatas, yet wholly free from self-conscious point-making. If anything they tend towards reticence, with slightly slower tempos than usual in Allegros—the opening movement of K376, for instance, is more graciously lyrical, less puckish than one often hears. But their playing never lacks inner vitality. Listen to their verve and elan in the first movement of K305, or their vivid response to the wit and raillery in the finale of K378; and at the other end of the spectrum, hear how subtly they shape and colour the Andante of K380, each instrument accompanying the other in turn with exquisite tact and sensitivity.
The close accord enjoyed by Zimmermann and Lonquich is underlined by a clear, truthful recording that achieves a well-nigh perfect balance between the two instruments. On the more forwardly recorded Barenboim/Perlman discs on DG the balance is, as so often in these works, tilted slightly in favour of the violin, so that subordinate figuration at times assumes an undesirable prominence. In quick movements Barenboim and Perlman tend to project the music that much more boldly and urgently than Zimmermann and Lonquich, with more rapid tempos and a rather wider tonal palette; and, conversely, they adopt a graver, more introspective manner than their younger rivals in the Andante of K376. The performances by Barenboim and Perlman are compellingly fine; but in some moods I could well prefer the lighter touch and more restrained eloquence of the cultured, beautifully matched EMI duo.'