CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS

Performance Tuesday, November 18, 2014 | 8 PM

Anne-Sophie Mutter
Mutter Virtuosi

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Acclaimed violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter is the soloist and leader of the Mutter Virtuosi, an ensemble of young students and professional string players who are alumni of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation. This celebration of daring string writing features the US premiere of André Previn’s Violin Concerto No. 2. The program concludes with The Four Seasons, Vivaldi’s set of violin concertos offering vivid depictions of bird song, summer storms, hunting horns, barking dogs, and slippery ice.

The contemporary work on this program is part of My Time, My Music.

Performers

  • Mutter Virtuosi
  • Anne-Sophie Mutter, Violin and Leader

Program

  • BACH Concerto for Two Violins, Strings, and Continuo in D Minor, BWV 1043
  • ANDRÉ PREVIN Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra (with two Harpsichord interludes) (US Premiere)
  • VIVALDI The Four Seasons

    • Encores:
  • VIVALDI Presto from Concerto in G Minor for Violin and Orchestra, RV 315, "L'estate" ("Summer")
  • BACH "Air on the G String" (from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068)

Event Duration

The printed program will last approximately two and one-half hours, including one 20-minute intermission.

Bios

  • Mutter Virtuosi


    The Mutter Virtuosi is a string orchestra made up of young scholars and professional string players who are alumni of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation, a foundation for the development of global support for young, talented string soloists founded in Munich in 1997. Ms. Mutter has frequently performed concerts with the foundation's scholarship students to introduce them to the life of a professional musician and to a broad audience. Since 2011, she has expanded that activity with the formation of the Mutter Virtuosi for touring projects.

    The first Mutter Virtuosi European tour in the spring of 2011 included performances in Vienna, Lucerne, Baden-Baden, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Essen, Hannover, Friedrichshafen, and Wehr. The program included Mendelssohn's Octet, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, and a newly commissioned Duo Concertante for Violin and Bass by Krzysztof Penderecki, performed by Ms. Mutter and the first Aida Stucki Award winner, bassist Roman Patkoló.

    Ms. Mutter feels strongly that her scholars and young professionals must experience traditional and new music, as well as perform in charity concerts for humanitarian causes: "I find it important that our young musicians are aware of their social responsibility as artists," she says. "Music is a gift to all, an opportunity of joint experience irrespective of origin, of doing something meaningful and placing yourself in the service of society as a musician."

    A June 2013 Asian tour included the same Mendelssohn and Vivaldi works, as well as the world premiere of a new work of Sebastian Currier-Ringtone Variations for Violin and Bass performed by Ms. Mutter and Mr. Patkoló. 

    Future tours will include performances in 2015 at summer festivals across Europe, a German tour in April 2016, and performances in Asia in October 2016 to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Ms. Mutter's Japanese debut.

     

    More Info

  •  

    Anne-Sophie Mutter


    Anne-Sophie Mutter has been recognized as one of the world's greatest violinists for more than 35 years. A four-time GrammyAward winner, Ms. Mutter has been a champion of contemporary music throughout her career, and her current tally of world premiere performances includes 22 compositions. She has had works composed for her by composers who include Sebastian Currier, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutosławski, Norbert Moret, Krzysztof Penderecki, André Previn, and Wolfgang Rihm.

    In the 2014-2015 season, Ms. Mutter curates a six-concert series at Carnegie Hall as a Perspectives artist; makes guest appearances with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Berliner Philharmoniker, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and London Symphony Orchestra; and tours with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Nacional de España, New World Symphony, and Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra. In addition, she embarks on a six-city tour with the Mutter-Bronfman-Harrell Trio to Montreal, New York, Northridge (California), Santa Barbara, Costa Mesa, and Sonoma, and joins her string ensemble, the Mutter Virtuosi, on its first North American tour to Chicago, Toronto, Atlanta, Naples, Kansas City, and Washington, DC.

    Ms. Mutter has long used her public profile to support and promote charitable causes, notably those associated with the alleviation of medical and socialproblems. Her benefit concerts-which number 62 to date-have raised funds for ahost of organizations worldwide. Ms. Mutter's many awards and honors reflect the nature of her humanitarian work as well as the excellence of her artistry. She received the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2008, the Legion of Honour in 2009 for services to contemporary French music, and the 2011 Erich-Fromm-Preis for the advancement of humanism through social engagement. Additional honors include the Merit Cross 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Mendelssohn and Brahms prizes, the Herbert von Karajan Music Prize, and the Bavarian Order of Merit. In 2013, Ms. Mutter was inductedinto the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a Foreign Honorary Member.

     

    More Info

Audio

Vivaldi's The Four Seasons (Danza pastorale)
Anne-Sophie Mutter, Violin | Trondheim Soloists
Deutsche Grammophon

At a Glance

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH  Concerto for Two Violins, Strings, and Continuo in D Minor, BWV 1043

Bach’s music for solo violin, both unaccompanied and in ensemble, attests to his proficiency on string as well as keyboard instruments. Although he wrote numerous violin concertos, only three have come down to us: two for solo violin and the ever-popular D-minor “double” concerto, all scored for an orchestra of strings alone. Bach modeled his concertos on Vivaldi’s, using ritornello form in the fast outer movements.


ANDRÉ PREVIN  Violin Concerto No. 2

Previn’s Second Violin Concerto, with a strings-and-harpsichord scoring that reflects Vivaldi’s famous concertos, is also his second dedicated to Anne-Sophie Mutter. Previn’s piece occupies a Baroque footprint; much in the actual writing has a Baroque feel, too, including the stepwise movements of the parts and the collective behavior of the accompanying ensemble, which itself includes a group of soloists.


ANTONIO VIVALDI  The Four Seasons, Op. 8, Nos. 1–4

Vivaldi’s name is virtually synonymous with these four dazzling and richly atmospheric works, which were published in 1725 in a collection of 12 concertos titled The Contest Between Harmony and Invention. Early specimens of “program” music, each concerto in The Four Seasons was prefaced by a sonnet intended, in the composer’s words, as “a very clear statement of all the things that unfold in them.” Scintillating pyrotechnics and subtle tonal effects make Vivaldi’s masterpiece a feast for the ears.

Program Notes

Watch


Anne-Sophie Mutter Introduces Her 2014-2015 Perspectives Series

Perspectives: Anne-Sophie Mutter

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