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The Very Best of Anne-Sophie Mutter Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750) Violin Concerto
in E, BWV1042 [19:55]; Concerto for two violins in d minor, BWV1043
[16:48]; Violin Concerto in a minor, BWV1041 [16:04] Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741)
The
Four Seasons – ‘Autumn’, Op.8/3 [10:57] Wolfgang Amadeus
MOZART (1756-91)
Violin Concerto No.4
in D, K218 [24:17] Jules MASSENET (1842-1912)
Méditation from Thaïs [6:43] Pablo SARASATE (1844-1908)Zigeunerweisen [7:46]
Anne-Sophie
Mutter (violin)
English Chamber Orchestra/Salvatore
Accardo (Bach); Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Herbert von
Karajan (Vivaldi); Philharmonia Orchestra/Riccardo Muti
(Mozart); Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Herbert von Karajan
(Massenet); Orchestre National de France/Seiji Ozawa (Sarasate)
rec. Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London, 15-17 November,
1982 (Bach); Zeremoniensaal, Hofburg, Vienna, June, 1984
(Vivaldi); Abbey Road Studios, London, 25-26 November,
1981 (Mozart); Philharmonie Berlin, November 1980 and January
1981 (Massenet); Salle Wagram, Paris, 29-30 May, 1984 (Sarasate).
DDD.
Booklet with notes in English, French and German. EMI CLASSICS
2076342 [52:47 + 50:11]
Can it really be almost
28 years since the earliest of these recordings was made
by Karajan’s 17-year-old discovery? If it serves no other
purpose, this two-disc reissue certainly reminds us of
the inexorable march of time. That, however, is hardly
a good reason for buying this reissue; what about the musical
quality? I was more than a little surprised to find myself
enjoying just about everything here – surprised because
I hadn’t thought of Anne-Sophie Mutter as an ideal interpreter
of Bach, Vivaldi or even Mozart, especially in the light
of the very forthright - not to say downright rude - comments
which she has made about period performers. The notes in
the booklet quote from her article in Strad magazine.
It was, therefore, with
some trepidation that I began to listen to the first CD,
a straight reissue of the original – the matrix number
reveals that it’s not even been re-mastered. Expecting
something rather stodgy, in the manner of many non-period
versions of these concertos - I Musici, for example, coupled
with the Brandenburg Concertos on Philips Duo 438 317 2
- I found myself instead thoroughly enjoying what I was
hearing. These are sprightly performances, well recorded,
which did much to reconcile me to non-period playing in
works which I had come to think of as the sole domain of
the likes of Andrew Manze and Simon Standage. With good
orchestral support and very sympathetic direction from
fellow violinist Salvatore Accardo, who joins Mutter in
the Double Concerto, my only real reservation was the short
playing time of this disc – indeed, of both discs. The
recording places the soloist forward, but not unduly so,
and the harpsichord continuo is (just) audible.
The clock says that these
are slow performances. Alice Harnoncourt, for example,
takes just 17:50 for the Concerto in E, against Mutter’s
19:55; Simon Standage 14:26 for the a minor Concerto, against
16:04 and Standage with Elizabeth Willcocks just 14:49
for the Double Concerto against 16:48 here. My ears, however,
tell me a different story and leave me more than happy
with the Mutter/Accardo combination. In the final analysis,
I’m still far more likely to listen to one of these period-instrument
recordings – Harnoncourt with the Concentus Musicus under
Nikolaus Harnoncourt on Teldec 857381221 2; Simon Standage
with the English Concert and Trevor Pinnock on DG Archiv
410 646 2 – but I shall want to hear this EMI version also.
If it’s Mutter’s Bach
recording that is the chief appeal for you, it’s still
available on its own at the same price as this reissue
(7 47005 2), but go for the new version and get the bonus
items on the second disc.
The first of those bonus
items, the Vivaldi ‘Autumn’ concerto, is more unashamedly
large-scale and old-fashioned, no doubt owing mainly to
Karajan’s direction: if you’ve ever heard his version of
Italian Christmas Concertos by Corelli, etc., you’ll
know that he liked the big-band approach to this music.
Corelli tends to crumble under Karajan’s weight but that
weight is a little less apparent here than on the Christmas
CD. Vivaldi, in any case, is very resilient: I don’t think
I’ve ever heard a performance of The Seasons which
didn’t offer fresh insights, with the possible exception
of Nigel Kennedy’s first recording; the only thing I learned
from that was that even Vivaldi can be destroyed by being
pulled about too much. His remake is much better.
Of all the non-period
versions, I especially admire the performance by Alan Loveday
with the Academy of St Martin’s and Neville Marriner (Decca
Originals 475 7531). If I say that this Mutter/Karajan
version reminded me of the ASMF recording at times, that
is high praise indeed. It may be slower than most, though
not hugely so, and it isn’t stodgy. There are rather too
many ritardandi for my liking, but in its own terms,
clearly set from the outset, this is a perfectly valid
interpretation.
Once again, however, I
am likely to return more often to period interpretations – Simon
Standage and Trevor Pinnock again, on DG Archiv Originals
(4746162), still hold up very well. Better still, however,
would be to go for a complete recording of the Op.8 concertos:
the Taverner Players/Andrew Parrot on Virgin Veritas (4820882)
or Monica Huggett with the Raglan Baroque Players and Nicholas
Kraemer on another Virgin Veritas (5616682), both highly
recommendable bargain-price 2-CD sets.
The Mozart concerto, recorded
in 1981, is the oldest item here. When it first appeared
on CD a few years later, there were very few recordings
of these violin concertos available in the new format.
Now there are many more, including a more recent recording
by Mutter herself on DG, but this older version still holds
up well. If its chief virtues are the clarity and technical
proficiency of Mutter’s playing, coupled with a tendency
to linger and enjoy the incidental delights of the music,
then those are recommendable qualities in my book. The
notes in the booklet rightly draw our attention to the
performance of the slow movement, where all the affective
power of the music is drawn upon without making the process
as obvious as it is in the Vivaldi.
This performance certainly
whetted my appetite for the complete recording from which
it is taken, now a mid-price EMI Great Recordings of
the Century CD on 5628252, with Concertos Nos. 1
and 2 and the Adagio. The only reservation, therefore,
is that if it has the same effect on you, you may find
yourself owning two copies of this version of the Mozart.
Better, however, to go for the Grumiaux/Davis recordings
of all the concertos on Philips (4647222 or 4383232 – both
lower-mid-price 2-CD sets).
The two shorter pieces
which round off the second CD are very enjoyable, though
no-one is likely to buy the set for them. They do, however,
bring us closer to our own time and serve as reminders
of the repertoire more normally associated with Anne-Sophie
Mutter than Bach and Vivaldi: a truly ‘best of’ album would
have included some romantic and twentieth-century works.
The Thaïs Méditation receives a really heartfelt
performance and Zigeunerweisen a genuinely gipsy-like
one, schmalzy and lively by turn.
The notes in the booklet
are short but informative. These two CDs may not be exactly
the ideal vehicle for displaying Mutter’s best qualities,
but they do offer an beguilingly-priced opportunity to
get to know some fine performances – often very fine – of
an attractive musical programme. With good recording throughout,
everything on this 2-CD is very enjoyable, much more enjoyable
than I had expected.
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