Violin Sonatas 1-10; Allegro; Contretanz; Menuetto (4 CD Pluscore)

The famous "Spring" Sonata gains an added dimension in the context of the passionately engaged performance of its preceding companion/counterpart predecessor (the Fourth Sonata in A Minor). There's a full partnership between violin and piano (too often missing in accounts of these works) that allows Mutter and Orkis to play off each other with full-blooded spontaneity, perhaps at its most engrossing in the boldly searching scope of their "Kreutzer" Sonata, which stands in wonderful contrast to the intimate loftiness of the final sonata in G--Mutter's own favorite. Throughout the set, Mutter couples her probing intelligence with nuanced phrasing, incisive rhythms, and expressive gestures (notice the tender turn she gives to the all-important trill that opens the last sonata) to bore into the music, unearthing many buried treasures. The discs also include a handful of encores as bonbons and are encoded with CD-plus software so that listeners can follow the scores of four of the sonatas. --Thomas May