Hope Enough

By combining the 120 extant measures of Mozart's unfinished Concerto in D major for violin and piano, K. App. 56 (K. 315f) with the Sonata in D major for piano and violin, K. 306, composer Philip Wilby has fashioned a performing version that seems reasonably backed by musical evidence, competent in orchestration, and perhaps ingenious enough to meet the approval of some Mozartians. Unfortunately for listeners seeking a major revelation, this reconstruction is short on the felicitous surprises and touching expressions one might find in a fully conceived work by Mozart, and seems a bit ordinary in substance and artificial in development.

This is exuberant music-making with real life to it. Whoever is responsible for the feeling of spontaneity, it embraces every performance, and the shifting colors from one selection to the next insures enough variety. First-rate side musicians come and go, and vocalist Joy Denalane embodies an iconic blues singer in Sam Cooke’s plaintive “A Change Is Gonna Come.”

Daniel Hope provides a thoughtful and distinctive take on this increasingly familiar music. While his coolly radiant tone can turn fragile and scratchy at times of stress, his interpretations have a patient sobriety recalling David Oistrakh, the great Soviet-era virtuoso to whom the present CD is dedicated.