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Berg's Violin Concerto (1935) is considered by many the most accessible and emotionally engaging piece of music in the atonal idiom. His last completed work, the concerto was written as a memorial "to an angel" upon the premature death of Alma Mahler's daughter Manon Gropius. But as with all of Berg's oeuvre, an autobiography of the composer's inner life is also thoroughly woven into the score. From the deeply reflective nuances of its quiet opening, Anne-Sophie Mutter takes the listener into the heart of Berg's ambiguous lyricism. There's a keen grasp, both by soloist and conductor James Levine, of the work's intricate structure and progression, but never at the price of a coldly disengaged intellectualism. Mutter summons a marvelous array of shadings and colors, effecting a truly haunting impression as tonality makes its ghostlike apparition, first in the guise of a folk song and, in the final part--following a violent cataclysm rendered with fiery power--in the variations on a quote from a chorale by Bach. Throughout, Mutter's intuitive realization of the psychic journey traced by Berg reveals the work's significance as closer in spirit to a requiem of farewell than a traditional concerto.
Mutter's command of an animated tone that pulsates with expressive purpose inspired the contemporary German composer Wolfgang Rihm to write the other work on this disc, Gesungene Zeit ("Time Chant"). It's a mesmerizing neoexpressionist poem of shimmering, elongated string lines--later punctuated with dire eruptions from full orchestra--that seem to form an ether over which the soloist floats. Any sense of time measured in bars becomes negated as Mutter intones Siren-like threads of sound in the highest register. As with the Penderecki Violin Concerto No. 2 and other contemporary works she champions, Mutter plays with a gripping immediacy that indeed makes Rihm's imaginative novelty seem tailor-made for her. --Thomas May
Alban Berg: Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel" (1935) / Wolfgang Rihm: "Time Chant" Music for Violin & Orchestra (1991-92) - Anne-Sophie Mutter Reviews
Alban Berg: Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel" (1935) / Wolfgang Rihm: "Time Chant" Music for Violin & Orchestra (1991-92) - Anne-Sophie Mutter Reviews
| 47 of 56 people found the following review helpful  Lyrical and Modern, By This review is from: Alban Berg: Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel" (1935) / Wolfgang Rihm: "Time Chant" Music for Violin & Orchestra (1991-92) - Anne-Sophie Mutter (Audio CD) I admit to having been dubious about Anne-Sophie Mutter. There have been so many crossover fiddle-babes lately, that I had subconsciously filed her alongside Vanessa Mae and Linda Brava. That was unfair, probably sexist, and ill-considered, as this disc makes clear.Mutter is the real thing. She displays an extraordinary command of her instrument in what is really an very difficult and technically demanding piece. The Berg Violin Concerto is magical. At times jagged and strident and at times soaring and lyrical, it demands exceptional range from the soloist. Although it is [mainly] atonal, the concerto is capable of expressing great warmth and melodic invention in the right hands. Mutter's hands are the right hands. I hesitate to use another sexist term like "a woman's touch," but the truth is that there is something ineffably feminine in Mutter's performance here. Perhaps it's a lyricism that I don't here in Stern's performance of the same piece. Perhaps... Read more 16 of 17 people found the following review helpful One of the greatest CDs Deutsche Grammophon has put out, This review is from: Alban Berg: Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel" (1935) / Wolfgang Rihm: "Time Chant" Music for Violin & Orchestra (1991-92) - Anne-Sophie Mutter (Audio CD) I've held off on reviewing this Deutsche Grammophon disc for a long time, since I didn't think I could add anything to the praise already lavished on it by the press and my fellow reviewers. Yet, it is the fate of reviewers to ultimately throw in their two cents in spite of all that has come before, so here follow my thoughts on these performances by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by James Levine, with Anne-Sophie Mutter on solo violin.Alban Berg's "Violin Concerto" (1935), with the dedication "to the memory of an angel", seems to have finally entered the standard repertoire. Written after the death of the young Manon Gropius, daughter of Alma Mahler-Werfel and Walter Gropius, it is a work of constant elegy sometimes tempered with praise of a beautiful young soul, but at other times giving in to the darkest feelings of mourning and catastrophe. Like in all his work, Berg uses the twelve-tone system inherited from his teacher Arnold Schoenberg, but with strong echoes of... Read more 9 of 9 people found the following review helpful Anne-Sophie Mutter Plays Berg, By This review is from: Alban Berg: Violin Concerto "To the Memory of an Angel" (1935) / Wolfgang Rihm: "Time Chant" Music for Violin & Orchestra (1991-92) - Anne-Sophie Mutter (Audio CD) Alban Berg (1885 -- 1935) composed his violin concerto as a requiem for a young woman, Manon Gropius, but the work effectively became Berg's own requiem as well. It is Berg's last completed score, written in 1935. This is passionate, emotive music which staddles the bounds between atonality and musical romanticism. The performance by Anne-Sophie Mutter and James Levine conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, recorded in 1992,is justly celebrated. This is an ideal introduction to Berg and to his masterful violin concerto. This is difficult music, make no mistake. The new listerner should stay with it, as the violin concerto will reward many hearings.I used the discussion of this work in Michael Steinberg's book, "The Concerto," (1998) as a guide to my listening. Steinberg writes with great enthusiasm for Berg's concerto and gives the reader a good, brief introduction to Berg and his work. The violin concerto is a hermetic work. That is, the concerto is filled with... Read more |
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