Classical - Keith Pascoe/ Brian McNamara

St Barrahane’s, Castletownshend

Pianist Brian McNamara suggested to Keith Pascoe (violin), more than a year ago, that they should perform all of Mozart’s 17 sonatas for piano and violin, combining them with all 10 of Beethoven’s sonatas for the same combination, in a series of seven recitals to be held in Castalia Hall in Co Kilkenny.

On the face of it, the idea was ludicrous — complete cycles of the Beethoven sonatas have been performed by artists such as Mariana Sirbu and Jan Cap, among others, but I have never heard of a project as ambitious as this one. Since then, the project has expanded to 30 recitals around the country, with complete cycles in Dublin and Cork. I was relieved to finally catch up with them when they brought the 33rd Festival of Classical Music in Castletownshend to a close.

This recital comprised two sonatas by each composer — Mozart’s Sonatas in Bflat, K 378 and G major K.379, Beethoven’s Op 12 in D and Op30 in A, with which they opened the programme. In the 1st movement of this one Beethoven delightfully plays around with the rhythms and this duo revelled in the fun.

Occasionally I found some semiquaver passages blurred by over-pedalling. They simply allowed the music to speak for itself in the Adagio and splendidly caught the varying moods of the finale’s variations. The G major sonata, K 379, is a wonderful, brilliantly imaginative Fantasia that hovers between major and minor tonalities and reveals Mozart’s genius for turning what would be termed cliché in the hands of other composers into dramatic statements of pure gold. This duo revelled in polishing that gold in their truly ravishing performance.

I was less impressed by their reading of Beethoven’s D major sonata. Tempos were unsteady, semiquaver passages muddy, and balance not always satisfactory.

Their best playing came in the final variation of the Andante, but for me, their choice of tempo for the final Rondo trivialised this excitingly noble music.