Anne-Sophie Mutter & Lambert Orkis: A Match made in Heaven

Sunday was heaven. Heaven was created for me at the Cultural Centre Concert Hall by Anne-Sophie Mutter and her long time piano accompanist Lambert Orkis, a match made in heaven. I cannot start better than by quoting that golden mermaid of the violin herself: "It starts with Claude Debussy, whose first Sonata must recall the First World War, followed by the Jewish composer Mendelssohn, baptized a Christian who rediscovered Bach and includes Mozart, who, in his Sonata 454 strengthened the emancipation of women and the legendary violin virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate, who in his compositions always uses folk-music as the root of all music.".

She officially played for us Debussy's Sonata for the violin and Piano in G Minor L 140 in Allegro vivo, Intermede: Fantasque et légèr and Finale: très animé; Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Violin Sonata in F (1838) in Allegro vivace, Adagio and Assai vivace; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Violin Sonata in B-flat K 454 in Largo-Allegro, Andante and Allegretto and finally Pablo Sarasate's  Carmen Fantasie. But she and her heavenly companion were so delighted with the reception they got that she threw in, wait, not one, not two, not three but four encores! The four encores in order were first George Gershwin's It Ain't Necessarily So, then Johannes Brahm's Hungarian Dance No. 1 and No. 2 and finally Thais' Meditation!

Anne-Sophie Mutter has been playing the violin for ever since I first started to listen to classical music in a serious way. She appeared radiant in her trade-marked evening dress but this time in yellow with a big floral pattern at the lower hem which together with her blonde hair, turned her into the golden mermaid of the violin on stage whilst her companion, a very humorous balding man always with a mischievous smile on his face, appeared in a deceptively "traditional" black swallow tail and white shirt. Their mutual understanding was perfect. He would constantly look at her and wait for her cue before starting on his chords and other accompaniment or play his solo part. It is an absolute delight to see their emotional dialogues in action, as they romped, stomped, supported, caressed, danced and even joked at or to each other's sounds!  

Mutter's sound was as golden as her hair. Her play was always smooth and finely nuanced and even in the most vigorous and passionate passages, including those requiring strong staccato-like double stops, she never sounded harsh. I simply adore the way she played her soft notes, soft but never inaudible. I have listened to many of her CDs and seen some of her DVDs. But there is nothing to match her live performance. 35 years on the instrument have a way of leaving their traces in the way she plays: complete ease and impeccable control, whether the musical style be classical, romantic, impressionist or jazz. To me, she does not "play": she sings, rejoices, sighs, reminisces, cries, shouts, coos, coaxes, somersaults and pours her heart out with her violin! And Orkis leads her on, joins in as her chorus, chords, refrains, variations and provides a reliable cushion for her mid-air somersaults. She has become one with her violin! And Orkis' keyboard has become one with her strings and bow. And how she expresses herself with her instrument and he with her! The Meditation which rounded off my Sunday night will certainly leave me many happy memories to reflect on for a long long time to come! Une expérience inoubliable! Merci, merci, merci!

 

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