Renaud Capuçon & Kit Armstrong

Program III The final two sonatas that Mozart wrote in 1778 in Paris Saturday, May 12 and published there later that year open the third program of Renaud Capuçon and Kit Armstrong. While K. 305 ­consists of only two movements, like the earlier “Palatine” Sonatas, K. 306 is his first piano-violin sonata to have three, a form that would become standard. John Burk refers to K. 305 as “a cheerful party piece, gay in every measure” and characterizes the music as “sheer, sparkling entertainment.”

Both instruments announce the theme of the first movement, an indication of how Mozart was moving away from the old idea of an “accompanied” sonata in which the piano thoroughly dominated the violin. The first movement is a 6/8 gigue complete with “misplaced” accents to keep players—and listeners—on their toes. It is followed by a graceful theme and variations, marked “Andante grazioso.” The first variation is for piano alone; in the second the violin takes the lead, and after that the instruments work together in an integrated fashion—although in the fourth variation Mozart suddenly introduces a mini Adagio section as a cadenza for the piano alone. An Allegro sixth variation brings the movement, and the sonata, to a scampering close.

“K. 306 is simply a great concert sonata in which Mozart tries to forget he is writing for amateurs,” says Alfred Einstein.

A brilliant, rich first movement features cascades of ­ 16th notes for the piano. The slow movement is in 3/4 time and marked “cantabile.” Mozart certainly intended the ­violinist to sing the achingly beautiful melody he had been given, one that seems tailor-made for the instrument. The last movement alternates between an elegant Allegretto and a more extraverted Allegro, spiced with a rambunctious piano cadenza in the middle in which the violin occasionally joins.

Written in Vienna in August 1781, K. 377 was published later that year as one of the six violin-piano sonatas that ­inaugurated Mozart’s relationship with the famous publisher Artaria. The opening movement (Allegro) features rippling eighth-note triplets for both instruments, shared equally, that almost approach perpetual motion. The following ­Andante, a wonderfully integrated set of six variations on a graceful theme, is the emotional heart of the work. The movement is in D minor, except for the fifth variation, which suddenly switches to D major. This leads into the ­Siciliana and the close of what some critics have referred to as one of the composer’s best sets of variations. The last movement is an extended minuet that goes far beyond what 33