Rossini taught himself music at the age of 12 by studying Mozart’s divertimenti and serenades, and shared his indomitable spirit. Marriner’s rendering of these six sonatas (here finally on the one disc) highlights their purity, precision and nascent classicism as well as their intrinsic virtuosity, studiedly rejecting any neo-baroque frills. Far from simplistic, these lively, youthful musical ‘trifles’ prove as hard to keep charmingly straightforward as some of Haydn’s or Mendelssohn’s lighter pieces.
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PRD 250 385
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