5/6 Anne-Sophie Mutter - Sibelius: Violin Concerto in Dm, Op. 47 / Kurt Masur / NY Phil / Movt. 3

Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 (1905)
00:00 III. Allegro, ma non tanto
Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
Kurt Masur, conductor
New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center - New York, NY
January 3, 2000 / PBS - Live from Lincoln Center

Carnegie Hall Recital - Anne-Sophie Mutter & Lambert Orkis
Respighi: Violin Sonata
1. Moderato
   • Respighi: Sonata for Violin and Piano in B...  
2. Andante espressivo – Appassionato – Poco più mosso – Tempo IU
   • Respighi: Sonata for Violin and Piano in B...  
3. Passacaglia. Allegro moderato ma energico – Più mosso – Ancora più mosso – Allegro molto e appassionato – Appassionato e meno allegro – Vivacissimo – Più presto
   • Respighi: Sonata for Violin and Piano in B...  

Crumb: Four Nocturnes (Night Music) : Notturno
I: Serenamente
   • Crumb: Four Nocturnes (Night Music II) : N...  
II: Scorrevole, vivace possibile
   • Crumb: Four Nocturnes (Night Music II) : N...  
III: Contemplativo
   • Crumb: Four Nocturnes (Night Music II) : N...  
IV: Con un sentimento di nostalgia
   • Crumb: Four Nocturnes (Night Music II) : N...  

Webern: Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 7:
1. Sehr langsam
   • Webern: Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, ...  
2. Rasch
   • Webern: Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, ...  
3. Sehr langsam
   • Webern: Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, ...  
4. Bewegt
   • Webern: Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, ...  

Prokofiev: Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 in D Major, Op. 94a
1. Presto
   • Prokofiev: Sonata for Violin and Piano No....  
2. Presto
   • Prokofiev: Sonata for Violin and Piano No....  
3. Andante
   • Prokofiev: Sonata for Violin and Piano No....  
4. Allegro con brio
   • Prokofiev: Sonata for Violin and Piano No....  
Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
Lambert Orkis, piano

NY Times Review - 1/03/2000
The violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter has made a career of confounding listeners' expectations. Most obviously, she has cultivated a glamorous image that initially led many to doubt her seriousness as a person and an artist. Of that there can no longer be any question.

Having established a specialty in contemporary music over a decade or so, she turned around and immersed herself in Beethoven for a year, in 1998. Then it was on to a recording of Vivaldi's ''Four Seasons,'' which has just been released by Deutsche Grammophon. Now she is back on the modern beat with an extended survey of 20th-century music in New York. On Monday she gave the first of two recitals with Lambert Orkis, a pianist, at Carnegie Hall, and on Tuesday she presented the second of her three programs with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall.

The contrarian tendency appears most delightfully in her programming and interpretations and is a significant part of what makes them exciting. In the current programs she does not confine herself to music of the recent past, to which she has contributed so richly with her commissions, but juxtaposes lush post-Romantic creations with sparer, spikier modernist masterpieces: Respighi's Violin Sonata with Webern's Four Pieces (Op. 7) on Monday, Sibelius's Concerto with Berg's on Tuesday.

Ms. Mutter opened the recital with the Webern, producing a finespun pianissimo of such purity and intensity that it filled Carnegie Hall in a way that eludes many a larger company. In George Crumb's Four Nocturnes (''Night Music II'') as well, the performers made much of even the quietest sounds. After Bartok's Violin Sonata No. 2 and so unconventional a program, Ms. Mutter ended with a most conventional closer, Ravel's ''Tzigane,'' which in this company and these hands took on unwonted stature.

The performances were wonderful throughout, with Mr. Orkis proving a full and eloquent partner, giving no quarter even in the fortissimos of the Respighi. Kurt Masur, too, though battling a bronchial infection, was an alert and sympathetic collaborator at the Philharmonic. There, Ms. Mutter lavished luxurious tone on the Berg, imparting the note of Romantic yearning that only the best performers find in this work. Could she do less in the Sibelius, with its soaring lines and rippling textures?

Ms. Mutter's series concludes with a third Philharmonic program on Friday and Saturday, and the second Carnegie recital on Monday. Go expecting anything you like, and she will find ways to surprise you.