Divertimento in E flat major

"It's great to see this work, incomparably the most magnificent string trio ever written, getting increasing attention on disc. We recently welcomed a splendid new recording on BIS, and now here's another, equally fine. It seems that the music brings out the best in its performers, as well it must. Anyone attempting a nearly 50-minute-long string trio had better have the chops to carry it off. Perhaps the outstanding quality of this performance is its rhythmic thrust, combined with the ability of the players to characterize their musical lines in an independent but still effectively coordinated way.

I'm thinking in particular of cellist Christoph Richter's delightful, swooping comments at the end of the first-movement exposition, the almost "parlante" phrasing of the finale's principal rondo theme, and the generously lyrical phrasing of the grand second-movement Adagio. In music bursting with some of Mozart's catchiest tunes, there's never a moment that turns dull or static in this performance, and the sonics let the music breathe in a warm but ideally intimate setting. You really can't have too many versions of this piece, one of the glories of the chamber music literature. Let this be one of them."
(10/10 ClassicsToday.com)

At the peak of his powers, but beset by cash-flow problems brought on by living beyond his means, Mozart composed his famous String Trio, K. 563 for his friend, fellow-mason and creditor Johann Michael Puchberg. While labelled 'Divertimento', this masterful six movement work is one of Mozart's most substantial pieces for string trio and one of his greatest works.

The Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud, who has made a number of highly-praised Naxos recordings, joins prize-winning compatriot Lars Anders Tomter (who has recorded the Walton Viola Concerto for Naxos) and acclaimed German cellist Christoph Richter.