Mutter's New Mozart DVD

[hornteacher]

To be honest, I wasn't expecting this to be as good as it is.  In general I find ASM has CDs that I REALLY enjoy (Sibelius, Berg) and those I really don't (Mendelssohn, Brahms).  With this DVD though, she got it right, very right.

All 5 Mozart violin concertos are performed live with a small chamber orchestra.  Mutter conducts the group with nods and smiles as soloists often did in the Classical Period.  The camera angles are great and cut to different views often.  The sound and picture quality are fantastic and the audience is very quiet and attentive throughout.

ASM plays the concertos on the DVD much better than on her CD set (which isn't bad per se but I felt the CD recordings had too much vibrato).  The chamber orchestra is excellent and they all actually seem to be having fun together.  ASM actually flashes that beautiful smile several times when conducting or between movements.

Oh yeah, and ASM looks gorgeous.  She's got the mermaid dress on from the cover and under soft blue lighting she radiates beauty.

The DVD has a bonus documentary (about 25 minutes) in which ASM and several members of the chamber orchestra are interviewed. The interviews are in German but have English subtitles.

In short, this DVD is great.  I'm a very happy camper.

[Harry Collier]

Well, you certainly seem to have a thing about the playing of buxom young female violinists. How do you feel about Mischa Elman? Turns you on, or off? Clue: he was a much more interesting violinist than Hilary Hahn or Anne Sophie Mutter.

[hornteacher]

Why assume that because I enjoy/respect Mutter that I do not enjoy/respect Elman?  As for who is more interesting, that's a matter of opinion and I respect your right to have yours whether it agrees with mine or not, but since Elman didn't release a DVD this month, I didn't feel the need to start a thread on him.

[Sergeant Rock]

Mischa Elman...he was a much more interesting violinist than Hilary Hahn or Anne Sophie Mutter.

Why? Because he was a male?

Sarge

[Harry Collier]

Why? Because he was a male?

Was he? Who knows. I only know that he was a more interesting violinist. But if you don't watch a film, you never know what sex the player might be. Does it really matter? Would Ginette Neveu have been better if she'd been a man? Or Joseph Hassid better if he'd been a girl?