*** MOZART: Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat, K. 364, Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra in D, K. 56 Midori, violin; Nobuko Imai, viola; NDR Symphony Orchestra, Christoph Eschenbach, conductor, piano, <i> Sony Classical</i>

The main draw here is the Concerto for Violin and Piano, hitherto known only as a fragment that Mozart broke off after completing 120 bars of the first movement. Musicologist Philip Wilby “completed” the movement and deduced the rest of the work by orchestrating the second and third movements of Mozart’s Violin and Piano Sonata K. 306, which he claims was a blueprint for the concerto. It’s pure conjecture, of course, yet the piece does have a pleasing Mozartean flavor and is worth considering as a repertory item; after all, how many violin-piano concertos are there? In the Sinfonia Concertante, Midori’s violin sounds rather steely and strident; so does Imai’s viola to a certain extent, but that’s because Imai is following Mozart’s advice to deliberately mistune her instrument up a half-step. As such, the two instruments blend compatibly with each other, in league with Eschenbach’s vigorous, rumbling big-orchestra accompaniment.