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Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter Marks 50 Years On Stage with Recording Project
Starting this year and going through next, German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter will celebrate her remarkable 50-year career on the concert stage as a soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist - and in more recent years, as a mentor and commissioner of new music.
Anne-Sophie Mutter. Photo by Andreas Ortner.
To commemorate this milestone, Mutter is launching a series of recordings called ASM Forte Forward on Alpha Classics. The new recordings will focus on new music, exclusively featuring contemporary works written for Mutter. And for the first time, she is producing the recordings herself.
"I choose to be more than a guardian of traditions," Mutter said. "Music lives as we renew it and pass it on."
The first recording in the series, "East Meets West," is scheduled for release in late March. It will include works by four composers, opening with "Likoo" for solo violin by Iranian-Dutch composer Aftab Darvishi, followed by "Gran Cadenza" for two violins by Unsuk Chin, a South Korean composer living in Berlin. Next is Jörg Widmann's String Quartet No. 6, "Studie über Beethoven"; then Thomas Adès' work for violin and orchestra, Air-Homage to Sibelius, premiered in 2022 and recorded here with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the British composer himself.
The second album, "American Tunes #1," features works by André Previn and Sebastian Currier, and will be released in August 2026. The release of this album coincides with Anne-Sophie Mutter’s 50th anniversary concert at the Lucerne Festival, where she made her international debut in 1976.
1976 was also the year Mutter met the legendary Berlin Philharmonic conductor Herbert von Karajan. She debuted with the Berlin Philharmonic the next year at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, and she and Karajan would go on to perform and record together for 13 years, until his death.
Mutter will release more albums in the "ASM Forte Forward" series in 2027 and 2028.
Find Mutter's live concert schedule here. Her upcoming performances include live premieres of "Likoo, for violin solo" by Aftab Darvishi, which is featured on the new album.
You might also like:
- REVIEW: Anne-Sophie Mutter and Pablo Ferrández Perform Brahms with LA Phil (2024)
- Violinist.com interview with Anne-Sophie Mutter (2008)
- Violinist.com interview with Anne-Sophie Mutter (2009)
- Violinist.com interview with Anne-Sophie Mutter: Brahms Sonatas (2010)
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{#2} As from Elisabeth Matesky, "Apostle" of Jascha Heifetz and Nathan Milstein; Concert Artist/Violin Mentor Carrier of Heifetz-Milstein Traditions of Violin Art and NM Bowing Legacy ~ also honoured Colleague of *Anne-Sophie Mutter, having been '80s introduced to each other in London's Royal Festival Hall by Sir Georg Solti, knowing us both as Violin Soloists and bringing us together quite early on in ASM's Concert Career and my own having left London for the US playing and doing more in years following our via Sir Georg Solti (then Music Director/Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and having engaged yours truly) formal meeting with a feeling of Awesome Thrill for Anne-Sophie Mutter, and IMO, certainly The GOAT Violinist of Her Generation of European and American plus Asian Violin Soloists NO Doubt! I would like to add, Anne-Sophie is a very kind and also a very personable woman deeply interested in many other facets of Life, and a Fun Lady! In our prior visit here in Chicago, she expressed great curiosity & interest in knowing much about my rare many years of Private Advanced Studies Mentor in London, The GOAT Violinist with Heifetz, **Nathan Milstein, asking How plus Why NM played and so amazingly into his mid-'80s?!! We chatted quite a bit yet had so much to speak of we made a TBC "Anytime Violinist Chat Date" to meet later that year yet close to learning we were in A Pandemic and after her truly Wondrous Offering's for the ASM Chicago Beethoven 250th Birthday Anniversary Recital of 3 Beethoven Piano & Violin Sonatas which included The Grand "Kreutzer" and my having further Artistically learned much more of gloried Masterworks of Beethoven with Nathan Milstein, yet sharing some of many similarities via Mutter's Offering and that of Mr. Milstein although decades apart yet close in their LvB "Kreutzer' expressed reverence for Spirituality of Ludvig van Beethoven's Works for the Piano with Violin expressly written on all LvB Piano-Violin Sonatas in every valid Edition of this Masterwork in every major Publishing Music Classical House in the US and across Europe! It became obvious after our January 22, 2020, informal Violinist Chat and ongoing tbc Violin Conversation/s would have to wait until The Global Pandemic had fully passed ... One holds hopes to continue this intriguing discussion when hoped for travelling to Europe in 2026 or early 2027!!
I wish to Thank Editor of Violinist.com, Laurie Niles, for informing all of us on Violinist.com of this truly exciting forthcoming 50th Year of The Global Celebration of Violinist, Anne-Sophie Mutter's remarkable International Violin Soloist plus spilling over to A Star of Classical Music World often Recorded and Filmed Musical Career!!!
I will return with a few more thoughts on Anne-Sophie Mutter and focusing on some of her Greatest Recordings. Hopefully, Laurie Niles will carry much Info about this Full Fiftieth Year Anne-Sophie Mutter Violinist's Half Century Full Year Celebration for 'ASM' has numerous and Then Some Friends and Fans of her Artistry and Personae Around The World!! I salute Anne-Sophie for her glorious consistency of an Artistic Level very demanding to maintain when criss-crossing the entire Globe playing thousands of Concerts thus far and magnificently! ... May God's Blessings be with this Astonishing Artist and most kind woman and Colleague plus Mom to Two Daughters and so Beloved! {To ~ Anne-Sophie ~ Many Chicago Hugs from Milstein 'Apostle,' Elisabeth Matesky now January 18th, Anno 2026!}
~ ~ Thanking Laurie Niles from Chicago ~ ~
................ Elisabeth Matesky ................
Fwd ~ dmg {#2} Save Book File 18.01.2026
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January 15, 2026 at 06:56 PM · Mutter remains my favorite classical violinist. She’s not flashy, but she has made consistently strong musical contributions throughout her career.