The playing by Shumsky and Balsam is highly accomplished: virile, authoritative, beautifully shaped (as in the Andante of 1(296) and with a marvellous sense of rhythm (listen to the violin's first entry in the Tempo di Menuetto second movement of K303); and the recording is clean and lifelike. Mozart's sonatas for violin and piano have fated well on disc, with outstanding interpretations by such artists as Grumiaux and - Haskil, Goldberg and Lupu, and Szeryng and Haebler, to name only three partnerships; but this first taste of Shumsky and Balsam promises great things... --Gramophone
... the players involved are of a very high calibre and display a level of musicianship throughout that is never less than thorough. Balsam and Shumsky have rather contrasting personalities: the pianist is so much used to taking a supportive role that he only makes very mild forays into playing assertively. Shumsky, on the other hand, whilst also being a very experienced chamber player, has a stronger personality, and yet is able to restrain this to suit Balsam's style. And what style Balsam has in this repertoire! The ornamentation is so finely integrated into the passagework that the music achieves a truly impressive fluency. Even when the duo are at their less inspired, as in the first movements of K306 and 378, the standard of playing is sufficiently high to command authority. --Gramophone
Volume 4 of the Shumsky/Balsam Mozart sonatas contains two full-scale works and three that Mozart left in an unfinished state. The two completed sonatas are K377/374e in F and K380 in E flat, which date from the summer of 1781, and which complete the set of six published in Vienna by Artaria in November 1781, with a dedication to Mozart's talented pianist pupil Josepha von Auernhammer (the other four, which are included in Volumes 1-3, are K296, 376/374d, 378/317d, and 379/373a). The F major Sonata, K377 has an exceptionally lively and fluid first movement, a striking variation-form slow movement in D minor, and a Minuet-style finale; the E flat, K380 an expansive, Beet hovenish initial Allegro, a rather nervous and chromatic Andante in G minor, and a brilliant rondo finale. The three other works all date from August or September 1782 and were intended as part of a set of six sonatas to be dedicated to Mozart's newly wedded wife, Constanze, but none of them was finished. The Sonata in A (K402/385e) extends to two movements, the second a complex fugue which was subsequently completed by the Abbe Stadler; K403/385c in C is in three short movements, again completed by Stadler; and K404/385d in C consists or two very short movements, the second of which was rounded off by Johann Andre, who published the piece in 1804 as a 'sonatina'. Einstein described it as "simply a joke—Mozart gently poking fun at his wife".
The playing is as fresh, alert and musical as ever (listen to how subtly Shumsky alters the inflections when he repeats the variations in the second movement of K377, for instance), and conveys the sense of spontaneity that was so notable in previous issues. These are, indeed, performances to treasure, vividly recorded. --Gramophone, Feb 1985
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