Anne-sophie Mutter

[Coopmv]

Nor with mine, Sarge. I've heard her live several times and have never been disappointed.

I attended her concert with Kurt Masur at Carnegie Hall and was quite delighted with her performance.

[DavidRoss]

I was a wee bit gobsmacked earlier when reading this passage from another contributor elsewhere:

I'm not a particularly big fan of Mutter...and find her, in most cases, to be quite harsh, unsympathetic, uncharismatic, and selfish in her performances.

I'm not a particularly big fan either...in fact, I've never seen her perform (live, that is), thus have not only inadequate but absolutely no experience qualifying me to judge her performances.  Furthermore, I tend to share the usual prejudices against those who achieve enormous critical and popular success while so young and beautiful and who have long, illustrious careers etc. etc.  And I'm well aware that here and on similar sites it's terribly gauche to say anything favorable about her or other artists who've received such universal acclaim (contemporary ones, at least).

Nevertheless, based only on the recordings I've heard, my opinion is virtually the opposite of that quoted above.  And I've become a reluctant fan (even if not a big one) primarily because of having several times heard recordings played on the car radio that were so exciting that I had to know who the fiddlers were so I could rush out and buy them, only to find (chagrin!) that Ms Mutter was the culprit! Thus I've come to acquire several of her recordings, most of which I like very much.

[Tsaraslondon]

I was a wee bit gobsmacked earlier when reading this passage from another contributor elsewhere:I'm not a particularly big fan either...in fact, I've never seen her perform (live, that is), thus have not only inadequate but absolutely no experience qualifying me to judge her performances.  Furthermore, I tend to share the usual prejudices against those who achieve enormous critical and popular success while so young and beautiful and who have long, illustrious careers etc. etc.  And I'm well aware that here and on similar sites it's terribly gauche to say anything favorable about her or other artists who've received such universal acclaim (contemporary ones, at least).



Nevertheless, based only on the recordings I've heard, my opinion is virtually the opposite of that quoted above.  And I've become a reluctant fan (even if not a big one) primarily because of having several times heard recordings played on the car radio that were so exciting that I had to know who the fiddlers were so I could rush out and buy them, only to find (chagrin!) that Ms Mutter was the culprit! Thus I've come to acquire several of her recordings, most of which I like very much.

Stick with your instincts. I've heard her live on many occasions, and on every occasion my impressions were exactly the opposite of the quote at the beginning of your post.  Some people find that she can over emotionalise the music (the very antithesis of harsh, unsympathetic and uncharismatic) and a little too much of Mutter sometimes comes through at the expense of the composer, but surely that is because of that very charisma, rather than the other way round.

[DavidRoss]

Stick with your instincts. I've heard her live on many occasions, and on every occasion my impressions were exactly the opposite of the quote at the beginning of your post.  Some people find that she can over emotionalise the music (the very antithesis of harsh, unsympathetic and uncharismatic) and a little too much of Mutter sometimes comes through at the expense of the composer, but surely that is because of that very charisma, rather than the other way round.

Exactly.  Her Beethoven VC with Previn, for instance, is a bit too much for my taste (it's Beethoven, for Chrissake, not Rachmaninoff!) and in my experience (recordings only) when she errs, it's on the side of sappy excess.  She's the anti-Kremer.  But even though her approach is generally contrary to my predilections, the quality of her playing is so good that she wins me over time after time and several of her records are among my favorites.