Anne-Sophie Mutter - Brahms: Violinkonzert, Schumann: Fantasie Op.131 (1997)

This must surely be among the boldest, sweetest, most sensual and most provocatively phrased accounts of Brahms’s Violin Concerto ever recorded. And I can tell you with some confidence, after having recently surveyed a whole host of ‘historic’ violinists playing the same work, that not one of them waives the rules with as much nerve as Anne-Sophie Mutter does here. Kurt Masur leads us in with a typically patient opening tutti, then Mutter fashions a taut though full-toned first entry, lengthening climactic chords from bar 99 and relaxing for a silky-soft account of the first movement’s principal theme (4'35'', a real pianissimo) and cosily indulgent rising semiquavers at 4'53''. Sample her lacerating attack at 5'47'', or her extraordinarily vibrant handling of the second set at 7'06''; trills are immaculate, intonation spot on and the dialogic relationship with Masur suggests a fiery spirit operating within the context of a solid interpretative tradition.
The most striking aspects of this performance concern Mutter’s frequent use of portamento, her approach to vibrato (from ‘wide and fast’ to ‘none at all’) and the countless instances where she lingers across the bar-line, slows or speeds up. It is an unremittingly emotional statement, personal yet blatantly outspoken. At one point I half suspected some sort of private subtext, an imagined conversation perhaps, pleading or comforting, embracing or withdrawing for a spot of self-communing. Then I opened the booklet and read that “this recording is dedicated by Anne-Sophie Mutter to the memory of her husband, Dr Detlef Wunderlich”. Need one say more?
Joachim’s magnificent cadenza is realized to stunning effect in a capricious ‘revision’ by Ossip Schnirlin (the notes remain the same though their deployment is startlingly original) and the recording captures the full range of Mutter’s buttermilk tone. Schumann’s late Fantasie is an attractive 13-minute essay that takes meaningful side-glances at the darker-hued Violin Concerto. Mutter plays Fritz Kreisler’s arrangement and her repertoire of expressive devices lend a good deal of extra colour to the solo line. As to the Brahms, no comparisons are appropriate. Mutter’s performance is a warming but eccentric ‘one-off’, as individual and inimitable as the love that inspired it.