KEY POINTS:
Rating: * * * * *
Anne-Sophie Mutter is not the sort of violinist to be content with the Tchaikovsky Concerto and Vivaldi's Four Seasons, even though her recordings of both rank with the best. Fiercely committed to the music of today, she has tackled Lutoslawski, Penderecki, Rihm and Dutilleux and, on her latest album, pairs Bach and Gubaidulina.
The 77-year-old Sofia Gubaidulina is a major force on the contemporary scene, a native of Tatarstan whose scores draw from the exotic sonorities of Tatar folk music and the radical sonic experiments of the 60s and 70s.
Gubaidulina's new violin concerto In Tempus Praesens (In the Present Time) is also steeped in its composer's deep spirituality, using the violin as a symbolic protagonist in an immensely moving journey of faith. Rough-hewn at times, at others delving into shimmering, magical soundworlds, it could not have a a finer advocate than Mutter, whose searing cadenzas punctuate sonorous orchestral writing that seems to sprawl over secret Bachian chorales.
The coupling of this work with two Bach Concertos is inspired. Bach's A minor Concerto, with Mutter leading the Trondheim Soloists, has an Andante of flute-like delicacy and a Finale that is furious in its energy.
The German violinist feels there are bigger issues than rigid authenticism and, with playing of this commitment and fervour, who could disagree?
Both works are beautifully caught on disc, with the Deutsche Grammophon engineers being particularly responsive to the iridescent hues that Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra unleash in the Gubaidulina.
Recordings such as this not only assert that concert music is a vital entity in 2008 but that, over the centuries, it continues to address the eternal truths that are central to our lives.
William Dart
