*** 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.