‘Optimistic, ebullient and inexhaustibly inventive” is how the pianist Alasdair Beatson describes the three Beethoven sonatas on this disc – and that is exactly how they come across in these performances with the violinist Viktoria Mullova. Beatson plays on a copy of an 1805 fortepiano that’s capable of a range of colour from harpsichord-like jangle to mellow pianistic smoothness, which he exploits to the full. Buoyed on the top of this, Mullova’s playing, on gut strings, is historically informed but not dogmatically so. She uses vibrato for colour generously, and she throws in the odd inelegant swoop and exaggerated accent to disrupt her otherwise clean, clear sense of line. It’s characterful stuff.
What stands out is the balance and ease of interplay between the two musicians. Their sunny performance of Op 30 No 1 has an effortless push and pull between moments of repose and passages of high energy. The central movement of Op 12 No 1 shifts convincingly through variations of quiet intimacy and fiery turbulence. Mullova punches the top notes in the opening bars of Op 30 No 3 in a gung-ho way that might work better in live performance, but the sense of rustic abandon they create in this work is infectiously gleeful.
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