Sofia Gubaidulina’s In tempus praesens is a Violin Concerto
written for Anne-Sophie Mutter between 2006 and 2007 and it’s
a substantial work lasting just more than half an hour. It was
premiered in August 2007 when Mutter performed it at the Lucerne
Festival with Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, though for this
first recording the LSO and Gergiev do the honours.
Cast in one movement,
but sectionally divided into five, it occupies an expressive
headland that comes close at times to the Bergian. From the
introverted first solo violin statements one feels the increasingly
mordant lyricism is part of a fast onrushing schema that pits
the solo instrument against the brooding, cajoling orchestral
collective – which at times indeed erupts into braying contempt.
Early on too we hear Chorale hints that are to recur. Moments
of controlled intensity abound – ominous percussion and lowering
bass lines – and because Gubaidulina writes with such precision
the force is cumulative. If the primary reference is to Berg
one may also allude in passing to K.A. Hartmann, and also to
moments in the Schnittke Viola Concerto as well. Through the
strife and the fissures, through the opposition of solo violin
and orchestra, epitomised by one especially gallant held solo
note in the face of all orchestral provocation to deviate, what
emerges, movingly and with culminatory force, is a gradual conflation
if not yet rapprochement between solo violin and orchestra.
There’s a final moment of lucid, rather virtuoso-conventional
triumphant ascent from the soloist – albeit the orchestra remains
predominately baleful and grim and reminds us that there are
no easy solutions here or anywhere.
The performances
are powerfully engaged, choleric, volatile, tangible and eloquently
controlled.
For a complete change
of pace and texture you could hardly go further than the Bach
concertos; so that’s where Mutter and DG have gone, forsaking
the chance to couple this with another of the composer’s works
or another contemporary or near contemporary concerto. This
time Mutter is joined by the Trondheim Soloists who accompanied
her on disc in the Four Seasons not so long ago. She has recorded
Bach before, with Accardo, but this time round she uses a baroque
bow for crisper articulation. The performances that emerge are
compelling but odd. The outer movements whiz by whilst the central
ones are full of pellucid and, in the context, oddly distended
legato beauty. This can be a mixed blessing when elsewhere the
orchestra’s firmly etched bass line is so precise and jabbing
and where the finales can feel rushed. The rallentandi in the
first movement of the E major sound exaggerated and for all
the precision of attack, for all the baroque inspired bowing
incision, the finale here as well sounds a bit superficial.
It’s for the Gubaidulina
that you should gravitate to this disc really. I have a promotional
advance book copy so can’t comment on the booklet – though I assume
its text is pretty much the same.
Jonathan Woolf
see also Review
by Aart Van der Wal
Anne-Sophie
Mutter (violin) 
