The Week in Reviews, Op. 39: Anne-Sophie Mutter in concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Written by Robert Niles
Published: July 15, 2014 at 10:36 PM [UTC]

Anne-Sophie Mutter. Photo © Harald Hoffmann / DG

Anne-Sophie Mutter performed the Dvorak with the Boston Symphony Orchestra

• Boston Globe: "Having taken on this formidable piece at Symphony Hall in February, the German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter returned to it on Friday night, electrifying the crowd with her committed and exacting display of the work’s substantial pyrotechnics. That said, her reading also at times had a certain episodic quality, one that left at least this listener wishing for a more integrated, and more deeply inhabited, sense of interpretive vision beneath the flurry of notes."
• Financial Times: "...the third movement, with its spirited main theme, brought melodic and structural relief and handsomely crowned Mutter’s glorious playing in a work she has championed."
• Albany Times-Union: "Appearing in a stunning green gown, Mutter played Dvorak's extremely virtuosic Violin Concerto with perfect intonation, phrasing, and now and then a change of timbres, such as not using vibrato while repeating a melodic phrase. Along with fast runs and arpeggios there were many times Mutter played two notes at once (double stops), all done with expertise and strong expression."
• The Classical Review: "...this concerto abounds with charming folk lyricism, and it is music that Mutter plays in grand style."
• The Berkshire Eagle: "As star soloist, Anne-Sophie Mutter offered up a garish rendition of the Dvorak Violin Concerto. The razzle-dazzle factor was high, perhaps to lend a narrative line to a somewhat rambling concerto."

Isabelle Faust performed the Mendelssohn with the Cleveland Orchestra

• The Plain Dealer: "...the violinist, known worldwide for her recordings, imbued the piece with genuine feeling and ensured that every note spoke with pristine clarity, including the highest pitches and fast stretches that with so many artists simply register as blurs."

Elizabeth Wallfisch performed works by Bach, Biber and Vivaldi in recital in Banff

• Calgary Herald: "Each musical gesture from her violin was packed with rhetorical colour, nuance, and flourish when necessary, yet always in command of what the phrase demanded. It was a clinic in now to play Bach expressively, baroquely, and musically."

Did you attend a concert in the past week? If so, please tell us about it in the comments. And if not, why not? Please support live music in your community by attending a concert or recital whenever you can!