Universal Classical Album of the Month, March\n2010

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Anne-Sophie Mutter | BRAHMS: The Violin Sonatas

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ARTISTS

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Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin Lambert Orkis, piano

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TRACK LISTING

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BRAHMS: Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 2 in A major, Op. 100\nBRAHMS: Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 1 in G major, Op. 7

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BRAHMS: Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 3 in D minor, Op.\n108

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On this recording, Anne-Sophie Mutter, accompanied by pianist\nLambert Orkis, shares her up-to-date thoughts on the Brahms Violin\nSonatas that have been central to her repertoire from the start of\nher career.

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These sonatas are among the most intense, emotionally\npenetrating works composed for the violin.

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Second only to her solo repertoire, chamber music has been for\nAnne-Sophie Mutter an on-going passion and commitment. Her\ncommunion with Orkis’s pianism defines musical collaboration at its\nzenith.

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Recent reviews of concerts where she performed these pieces are\nexcellent and will certainly make for an outstanding recording:

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“Her Brahms playing has acquired new maturity and intimacy”,\nwrites the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. “The dreamlike ending of the G\nmajor Sonata even took one’s breath away for a moment.”

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“Mutter’s Brahms today sounds more serious and restrained. One\nalmost has the impression that she wants to dissect sounds and\nstructures, to avoid overly hard contrasts, and yet to seek out\nhidden fractures that Brahms in his wholly rational approach tries\nso hard to cover up or at least to even out… It is there again:\nthis melting quality, this penetrating, soulful sound of unearthly\nbeauty… Mutter now shows an interpretive potential that has been\naltered and developed by her involvement with new music, for\nexample with the second violin concerto In tempus praesens by Sofia\nGubaidulina, which she premiered. Suddenly the tone seems to float,\nshorn of vibrato, turning almost eerie, only to be filled again at\nonce with warmth and new life.” Die Welt

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