Anne Sophie Mutter, Berliner Philharmoniker, Manfred Honeck Dvorak: Violin Concerto, Romance, Mazurek (2013) (repost)

Even though Anne-Sophie Mutter recorded most of the great violin concertos early in her career, working closely with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic, she hadn't recorded the Violin Concerto in A minor of Antonín Dvorák. This 2013 recording with Manfred Honeck and the Berlin Philharmonic fills that gap in her legacy, and this is an exceptionally bright and passionate performance, well worth the wait.

Ms. Mutter makes the violin sing in this fine collection of violin concertos recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic. Ms. Mutter was discovered by Herbert von Karajan at age 13, declared by him as "the greatest musical prodigy since the young Menuhin" and played with the Berlin Philharmonic as a teenager. The two Mozart concertos were recorded when she was only 15. The other concertos were recorded before she was twenty years old. My favorite is the Mendelssohn concerto. Ms. Mutter plays its haunting theme with elegance,flair and fire. Her passion and precision are evident through the difficult passages. Married to conductor Andre Previn, who wrote a violin concerto for her, Ms. Mutter never fails to intrigue her audience, making her vioin sing with colorful, soulful voices.

The violin is Penderecki’s own instrument (he studied it during his youth), it can therefore be argued that he has a special relationship with the instrument, perhaps it was this relationship that was the spark of inspiration that led to him writing the Concerto after he and Anne-Sophie Mutter performed the Violin Concerto No. 1 of Prokofiev together in 1988, with the resulting Concerto described as creating an “impression of a vast labyrinth” in the booklet notes.

This is a very welcome DVD release of an important series of concerts. Anne-Sophie Mutter, as she explains in the documentary, gave up a year of her life to concentrate solely on playing and recording the Beethoven Violin Sonatas in a series of concerts world wide - a luxury, she admits, afforded to few musicians. These performances come from the Paris cycle and are remarkably fresh. From the Haydnesque early sonatas to the altogether more challenging later sonatas, particularly a magnificent 'Kreutzer', these are performances that hint neither at over-preparedness nor over-familiarity. There is real spontaneity in many of these performances and a real sense of partnership between these superlative artists. Mutter is happy to allow Orkis to take the spotlight (and in the case of the op.23 dictate the development of the work). In every one of these sonatas there is ample proof that Mutter and Orkis are working for Beethoven and not for themselves. (Marc Bridle)

I must say that this recording surely has something magic about it. But I wouldn't really go as far as the previous reviewer, to say it's sexual - it's far more than earthly pleasures - it's ethereal. You can just sit back in your sofa, close your eyes and feel that there's something more than just the music you hear in this recording. Sensitive, intensitive, and sensual, sometimes on the border to vulnerability, is the playing from especially Ms Mutter.

Deutsche Grammophon's Simply Anne-Sophie is touted as "a unique collection of Anne-Sophie Mutter's incomparable Deutsche Grammophon recordings," it is simply one of several – Mutter Modern, Romance, and The Great Violin Concertos are among others Deutsche Grammophon has compiled from its extensive Mutter holdings from over the years. Simply Anne-Sophie has a greater chronological range than its predecessors as its earliest entries date from 1992 recordings made for the hit disc Carmen-Fantaisie and stretches through to some selections from Mutter Mozart: Violin Concertos, recorded at Abbey Road in 2005.

The violin is Penderecki’s own instrument (he studied it during his youth), it can therefore be argued that he has a special relationship with the instrument, perhaps it was this relationship that was the spark of inspiration that led to him writing the Concerto after he and Anne-Sophie Mutter performed the Violin Concerto No. 1 of Prokofiev together in 1988, with the resulting Concerto described as creating an “impression of a vast labyrinth” in the booklet notes.