Encore Series: Violin Recital by Anne-Sophie Mutter
InformationProgrammeTicketingAbout The Performers
Due to overwhelming response, there are 10 tickets of box seats with restricted view ($250 for each ticket) available for sale at the URBTIX Box Office of Hong Kong Cultural Centre from 10am on the day of the concert. Each person can purchase a maximum of two tickets per transaction on a first come, first served basis.
Mutter's Beethoven: Overcoming inertia
William Lau
Mutter and her long-time partner Orkis will be making a much-anticipated return to Hong Kong in November with a performance of an all-Beethoven programme as part of the celebrations commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. The pair has been partners for 31 years, and this time they will be performing Beethoven's Violin Sonata Nos. 4, 5 (“Spring”) and 9 (“Kreutzer”) – a warm-up for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in the coming year.
Exactly 40 years ago, in 1979, Mutter collaborated with Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker to record Beethoven's Violin Concerto. It was her second album with Karajan. In the same year, they recorded Beethoven's Triple Concerto, with Mark Zeltser as pianist, and the 24-year-old Yo-Yo Ma as cellist.
Mutter’s Beethoven recordings include his complete works for string trio and the complete violin sonatas. Beethoven will, of course, play a major role in her performances next year. Besides concertos and sonatas, Mutter will also be collaborating with young musicians to perform his chamber works, including piano trios and string quartets. The girl on those album covers from back in the days has grown to be a violin doyenne, founding the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation to support young music talents.
Of Mutter’s live performances, it was her recital in 2011 – also held at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre – that made the deepest impression on me. I had expected a high level of virtuosity from a soloist with a strong footing on the international music scene, but I was still amazed by Mutter’s preoccupation with the perfect sounds, even surpassing her peers on the top rung of the music world.
I was also stunned by her frenetic adherence to the written note. It was more than “faithful” because she would go out of her way to do it. Very few will care if she is following the score to a T, but she does it anyway. This would make a big difference when playing Beethoven's violin sonatas.
Mutter released Beethoven: The Violin Sonatas back in 1998, when the market for CDs was much bigger than it is now. From what I remembered, the recording attracted much attention in Hong Kong and had an impressive circulation.
I was young and inexperienced back then, and didn’t care much for the album. Listening to it again after 20 years, I realise that not only does this recording stand the test of time, but it can also be considered a model for future music lovers and musicians. I am certain that fans who are used to listening to music passively, or hold their favoured recordings as the standard, will find Mutter's renditions of Beethoven’s violin sonatas to be pretentious, strange and awkward.
Going back to the score, you will notice that Beethoven is challenging the performers and listeners to get out of the comfort zone and choose the difficult over the glib-and-easy. In this recording, Mutter complies with Beethoven’s numerous “awkward” requirements, with all the tricky phrasing and rhythms, and the sudden changes in volume and tempo. The so-called “fluid and natural” playing is just another word for being sloppy.
Another feature of Beethoven’s violin sonatas is the violin and piano’s echoings of each other. A difficult passage for the violin played by the piano can make for a mess, but Orkis’ performance in this recording shows that he is indeed Mutter’s partner in seeking the ultimate sound, and his pianistic skills have been hugely underestimated.
Violin Sonata No. 4 is the sister piece to the “Spring” sonata, and its restlessness makes for an interesting contrast with the latter. The “Spring” sonata and the “Kreutzer” sonata may be familiar to many ears, and if you think you already know them by heart, I will wait and see if Mutter and Orkis’ more-than-faithful interpretation will make an impact on your appreciation habits.
William Lau is a music critic who publishes his concert reviews on Hong Kong Economic Journal and Takungpao.
English translation provided by KCL Language Consultancy Ltd.
An all-Beethoven Programme
Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Op. 23
Sonata No. 5 in F, Op. 24, “Spring”
Sonata No. 9 in A, Op. 47, “Kreutzer”
The performance will run for about 2 hours including a 20 minute intermission.
Audience is strongly advised to arrive punctually. Latecomers will only be admitted during the intermission or at a suitable break. The presenter reserves the right to change the artists and programme.
Encore Series: Violin Recital by Anne-Sophie Mutter
Tickets available from 10 August (Sat)at URBTIX outlets, on internet, mobile app and credit card telephone booking.
Half-price tickets available for senior citizens aged 60 or above, people with disabilities and the minder, full-time students and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients (limited tickets for CSSA recipients available on a first come, first served basis).
“Great Music” Package Discount
For each purchase of standard tickets for ‘Violin Recital by Anne-Sophie Mutter’ and ‘Sir András Schiff and Cappella Andrea Barca’ (15/11 and 16/11 concerts), the following concession applies:
10% off for any 2 concerts; 15% off for all 3 concerts.
“Great Music” Group Booking Discount
For each purchase of standard tickets for ‘Violin Recital by Anne-Sophie Mutter’ and ‘Sir András Schiff and Cappella Andrea Barca’ (15/11 and 16/11 concerts), the following concession applies:
10% off for each purchase of 4 – 9 standard tickets; 15% off for 10 – 19 standard tickets; 20% off for 20 or more standard tickets.
Patrons can enjoy only one of the above discount offers.
Anne-Sophie Mutter is a musical phenomenon and virtuoso who, for more than 40 years, has been a fixture in all the world’s major concert halls, making her mark in classical music as a soloist, mentor and visionary.
Since her recital debut at the 1976 Lucerne Festival and solo debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Herbert von Karajan at the 1977 Salzburg Whitsun Festival, Mutter has frequently performed with the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony Orchestra, and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and has collaborated with the most prominent composers and musicians of our time.
A Four-time Grammy Award winner, Mutter is as equally committed to the great canonical works as to the future of music, and has given the world premieres of 26 works, many written for her, by composers including Unsuk Chin, Sebastian Currier, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutosławski, Norbert Moret, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir André Previn, Wolfgang Rihm and John Williams.
Mutter commemorates the 250th birthday of Beethoven throughout the 2019-20 season, beginning in September 2019 with performances of his Violin Concerto with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In October 2019, Mutter performs Beethoven’s Tripe Concerto with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra for the Carnegie Hall’s season opening concert. She then performs the Triple Concerto with Daniel Barenboim, Yo-Yo Ma and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Cologne, Paris, and Berlin, before embarking on a recital tour of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan, joined by Lambert Orkis in Beethoven’s "Spring” and “Kreutzer” Sonatas. Mutter and Orkis repeat this programme in January 2020 for their five-city North American recital tour. On 27 January 2020 Mutter, will perform the world premiere of Jörg Widmann’s Study on Beethoven String Quartet along with Beethoven‘s string quartets in San Francisco, followed by the New York premiere of the work at the Carnegie Hall on 30 January 2020. This programme forms the basis for Mutter’s Spring 2020 schedule, with appearances in Tokyo, Vienna, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Berlin, and Barcelona.
Mutter brings her seasonwide celebration of Beethoven to a thrilling conclusion in May and June 2020, performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck, Danish National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fabio Luisi, San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra conducted by Otto Tausk, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Honeck.
Dedicated to fostering the careers of emerging musicians, Mutter founded the Association of Friends of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation e.V. in 1997, to which the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation was added in 2008. Since 2011, she has regularly shared the spotlight on stage with the foundation’s exclusive ensemble of fellows, The Mutter Virtuosi. She has featured them in recordings, including Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Daniil Trifonov.
Mutter has received international awards and honours, including the Polish Gold Medal for Merit to Culture, the Bavarian State Foundation Culture Prize, the Romanian Order of Cultural Merit in the rank of Grand Officer, the insignia of a Commander of the French Order of Arts and Literature, the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum for her services to music education and young artists, the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, and the German Grand Order of Merit, among numerous others.
Lambert Orkis (Pianist)
The musical interests of Lambert Orkis encompass traditional and contemporary music performed on modern and period instruments. His substantial career includes more than 11 years of international touring as a partner with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. For more than 30 years, he has appeared with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter to captivate audience in the world’s finest performance venues. Their many recordings and DVDs for Deutsche Grammophon include the complete sonatas by Mozart (Choc de l’année Award), Beethoven (Grammy Award), and Brahms, and most recently, Penderecki's Sonata No. 2for Violin and Piano.
His distinguished career includes appearances with cellists Lynn Harrell, Anner Bylsma, and Daniel Müller-Schott, violinist Julian Rachlin, and violist Steven Dann, and he has performed with the Vertavo, Emerson, American, Mendelssohn, Curtis, and Manchester string quartets. As soloist he has made appearances with conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonard Slatkin, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Günther Herbig, Robert Kapilow, Leon Fleisher, Kenneth Slowik, and others.
Orkis has premiered and recorded compositions of numerous composers, including solo works by George Crumb, Richard Wernick, and James Primosch for Bridge Records. With the National Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Cellist David Hardy, he performs on both modern and period instruments in Beethoven’s complete works for piano and cello for Sono Luminus label.
Orkis participated as a distinguished performing artist and teacher for Australia’s Musica Viva Festival and has twice served as juror of, and performed for, Norway's Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition and Festival. The Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition for Pianists and the Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards have engaged him as judge. As an Honoured Artist for Taiwan’s New Aspect International Music Festival, he performed and presented masterclasses in Taipei.
Orkis has appeared internationally as orchestral soloist, and performed and recorded as a member of the Kennedy Center Chamber Players and the Smithsonian Institution’s Castle Trio (period instruments). He holds the positions of Principal Keyboard of the National Symphony Orchestra and professor of piano at the Temple University in Philadelphia. In acknowledgement of his accomplishments, Orkis was honoured with the German Cross of the Order of Merit.
Information provided by the artists
Chinese translation provided by KCL Language Consultancy Ltd.
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