Veteran violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter is not performing the usual Beethoven or Mozart repertoire here, but branching out to embrace new music commissioned for her. Along for the ride are the excellent New York Philharmonic under the baton of Michael Francis for the first Rihm work, and then under Alan Gilbert for the Currier piece, along with contrabassist Roman Patkoló. Lichtes Spiel (for violin and small orchestra) is indeed a "light game," with layered voices in the strings. There are moments of singing romanticism and ...
Read More
Veteran violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter is not performing the usual Beethoven or Mozart repertoire here, but branching out to embrace new music commissioned for her. Along for the ride are the excellent New York Philharmonic under the baton of Michael Francis for the first Rihm work, and then under Alan Gilbert for the Currier piece, along with contrabassist Roman Patkoló. Lichtes Spiel (for violin and small orchestra) is indeed a "light game," with layered voices in the strings. There are moments of singing romanticism and beautiful vibrato, even a section that sounds vaguely classical, while the piece constantly stays in motion. Rihm clearly gets interesting colors and characters from Mutter's violin, in surprising, exciting ways. Duo concertante shows off a really lively, rapid, eager violinist full of emotion that pours forth, and it is precisely this explosive quality that makes the piece so engaging to hear. But equally in the spotlight is contrabassist Patkoló, who plays with such agility that it...
Read Less