FRANZ XAVER MOZART (1791-1844)
The Complete Piano Chamber Music
Aaron Berofsky, violin • Suren Bagratuni, cello
Kathryn Votapek, viola
Christopher Harding, piano

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"May the name of his father be his epitaph, as his veneration for him was the essence of his life."
– Epitaph at the grave site of Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart

The influence of fathers on the lives of their sons in the Mozart family would make a fascinating study. The very complicated relationship of Leopold (1719-1787) to his son Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791); the physical absence of Wolfgang in his son Franz Xaver's life (the latter was born little more than four months before his father's death) — the overwhelming if benign weight of greatness bequeathed to Franz Xaver by Wolfgang surely must have been as shaping an influence as the hands-on training and fatherly domination of Wolfgang by Leopold.

The two sonatas for Violin and Piano (Franz Xaver played both instruments with excellent proficiency) were composed at different times but in the same town: Lemberg, which is situated in wester Ukraine and today is known as Lviv. It is a city with a fascinating history, having been part of the Kingdom of Poland until 1792 and thereafter a part of the Austrian Empire until 1918. It was and is a major center of many cultures' art, and Franz Xaver spent the bulk of his adult life teaching and contributing to the music scene there. In 1808, newly appointed as a music teacher to the daughters of the Polish Count Wiktor Baworowski, he produced his sonata in B-flat Major Op. 7. Op. 15, a somewhat larger sonata in F Major, was produced at another turning point in his life: the transition from music teacher in the home of noble officials to a freelance musician much in the style of his father twenty-five years earlier in Vienna. Such occasions are wonderful opportunities for new compositions to showcase one's abilities and creativity.

TRACKS
1-3   Sonata for Violin and Piano in B-flat Major, Op. 7		21:32
1.	Allegro	10:56
2.	Adagio ma non troppo	5:52
3.	Presto	4:44
4-7   Sonata for Violin and Piano in F Major, Op. 15		19:41
4.	Moderato	8:22
5.	Andante	1:28
6.	Polonaise	4:54
7.	Rondo: Allegretto	4:57
8-10   Grande Sonata in E Major for Cello and Piano, Opus 19		19:51
8.	Allegro	10:17
9.	Andante expressivo	4:54
10.	Allegro vivo	4:40
11-13   Quartet for Piano and Strings in G Minor, Op. 1		19:43
11.	Allegro vivace	8:57
12.	Adagio ma non troppo	4:42
13.	Allegro	6:04
Total Playing Time		80:47