Ibragimova/Tiberghien, Wigmore Hall, London, review: Respective strengths complement each other perfectly

Eight-year-old Mozart’s first published works were sonatas for piano and violin, and throughout most of his life he continued to write for this combination. So it was appropriate that violinist Alina Ibragimova and pianist Cedric Tiberghien should conclude their survey of these works with a programme spanning twenty years of his creativity.

The work they began with – the Sonata in F K377 - allowed them to display Mozart’s chamber gifts at full stretch, with a flamboyantly virtuosic Allegro followed by a theme plus variations which they imbued with Beethovenian gravity. This was followed by a precocious sonata written when the composer was just seven: they rattled merrily through the opening movement, and delivered its concluding minuet with poker-faced ceremoniousness. Next up were the rarely-performed Variations on ‘Au bord d’une fontaine’, whose Sicilian wistfulness was given a muscular edge.

These players are a very experienced double-act, and here their respective strengths complemented each other perfectly – Tiberghien’s bright precision making a foil for Ibragimova’s persuasive, full-blooded force. They expertly caught the character of each piece, revealing unexpected facets and pointing up the contrast between raw, budding genius and graceful maturity. Plus, in the unfinished Sonata in C K403, something else: a completion by Mozart’s friend and admirer Maximilian Stadler, a liberty justified by its own excellence.