Anne-Sophie Mutter: Beethoven: The Complete Violin Sonatas (DVD)

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Anne-Sophie Mutter, goddess of the violin, is one of the crown jewels in Deutsche Grammophon´s stable of recording artists. In order to celebrate Ms. Mutter´s career-long kinship with Ludwig van Beethoven, the label has released "Anne-Sophie Mutter: Beethoven--The Complete Violin Sonatas". The 2-disc set presents the complete program first sampled on the "Anne-Sophie Mutter: A Life With Beethoven" DVD, also reviewed here at DVD Town. (A Life With Beethoven)

Imagine the vision that it takes to be able to master an entire slate of music written for an instrument in a particular format. Cellist Yo-yo Ma has done it many times during his career with J. S. Bach´s six richly sonorous cello suites (available as two different recordings). Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and pianist Lambert Orkis devoted all of 1998 to playing Ludwig van Beethoven´s 10 piano/violin sonatas, a Herculean task usually accomplished over the course of an entire career. Ms. Mutter and Mr. Orkis traveled around the world, performing all 10 sonatas in 2-night concerts at each tour stop.

Following the conclusion of their tour, their recording company released a 4-CD set of recordings made during their Wiesbaden, Germany performance. The "Anne-Sophie Mutter: Beethoven--The Complete Violin Sonatas" DVD set features footage taped during the Paris, France performance at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. The DVDs contain renditions of all 10 sonatas: No. 1 in D major op. 12 No. 1, No. 2 in A major op. 12 No. 2, No. 3 in E flat major op. 12 No. 3, No. 4 in A minor op. 23, No. 5 in F major op. 24 ("Spring"), No. 6 in A major op. 30 No. 1, No. 7 in C minor op. 30 No. 2, No. 8 in G major op. 30 No. 3, No. 9 in A major, op. 47 ("Kreutzer"), and No. 10 in G major op. 96. Of course, since "Spring" and "Kreutzer" are the only ones with nicknames, they are more famous than the others (and possibly among the most recognized of all classical music compositions). (The "Anne-Sophie Mutter: A Life With Beethoven" DVD offers only the "Spring" and the "Kreutzer".)

Enjoyed in one sitting, the 10-sonata performance is breathtakingly epic. Combined, the pieces cover just about the entire range of the human experience, and the engaging dialogue between the violin and the piano sounds much more intriguing than what we usually hear coming from the mouths of actors in movies like "Charlie´s Angels".

Experiencing the ten sonatas in the order in which they were written allows for the viewer to notice the experimental nature of Beethoven´s music. Beethoven wrote and published the first three sonatas together (thus their collective Opus designation of "12"), and they play like an extended symphony for just the violin and the piano. No. 5, the "Spring", is much more famous than its sister sonata, No. 4. However, personally, I prefer the somber turmoil of No. 4 to the sunny-ness of No. 5.

Sonatas Nos. 9 ("Kreutzer") and 10 bring the cycle to a fitting end. Beethoven himself likened the bold "Kreutzer" to a concerto (without a full orchestra accompanying the violin and piano, of course). No. 9 begins with noble violin strokes that lead to a pas de deux between Mutter´s beguiling lyricism and Orkis´s masterful survey of his pianic domain. Sonata No. 10 was written much later than then others, and Beethoven´s failing health and increasing deafness informed the grandeur of his final piano/violin sonata (as if the master was saying farewell to the form).

My colleague, John J. Puccio, also writes reviews of classical music CDs for the magazine "$ensible Sound". I asked him for his opinion of Ms. Mutter, and he replied that he´s "always found her playing very refined, stylish, elegant, and, when needed, highly exuberant." I agree with my dear friend, of course, and I would also like to add that Ms. Mutter and Mr. Orkis bring plenty of innovation to the 10 sonatas. Ms. Mutter attacks her violin with bowing techniques no one else knows how to use. Mr. Orkis´s fingers dance over the keyboard with nimble spaciousness, and he isn´t afraid to hold his hands much lower than other pianists do--sometimes his fingers look like they´re barely hanging onto the keyboard! Both artists also play some passages noticeably slower or faster than more traditional musicians would dare to do. (Amazingly, Ms. Mutter plays the violin without a shoulder pad, and you can see that her instrument leaves a deep mark on her left collar-bone.)

Amusingly, the two musicians seem to interpret the music along stereotypical lines. Mutter the "serious German" walks on and off the stage without cracking a smile at all, and she prefers to see the somber side of things when the music sounds ambiguous, ambivalent. On the other hand, Orkis the "cheerful American" looks like he´s having the time of his life, and he brings a great deal of brightness to his piano tinkling.

As a fan of German-composed classical music (my favorite composers are Mozart and Beethoven), I find it rather moving and poetic that a proudly Teutonic violinist is the one creating definitive interpretations of important violin pieces for her generation, especially after a united Germany has risen out of the ashes of World War II to become the dominant cultural, economic, and political force in Europe. With her centuries-old (made in 1710!!!) Stradivarius violin, Ms. Mutter is the dominant violinist of our time. Like Yo-yo Ma, she is as interested in recording her versions of "the standards" for posterity as well as commissioning new works that show humanity´s evolving understanding of music.