Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
5.0 out of 5 stars
Musical Wisdom and the Two Sophias, 18 April 2009
It's a fine concerto Sofia Gubaidulina has written for the Anne-Sophie Mutter. She - Sophia Gubaidulina, that is - may well be the most gifted of that famous group of post-Soviet, post-Modern composers, Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Part, Giya Kancheli, Valentin Silvestrov and Edison Denisov. The Concerto is romantic, an updated, modernized romanticism, the romanticism of musician who has heard Witold Lutoslawski's 4th Symphony. One of the highlights of the piece starts around minute 18:50, with a dramatic triple chord repeated for nearly three minutes & violin monologue on top. Also, mysterious violins starting near minute 3, wondrous woodwinds at minute 6:23, and interesting wind-like effect at minute 25 (flutes or picolos?) - there again, as with the latter Lutoslawski, a romantic feel combined with contemporary effects. It's all in the balance you strike and Sofia Gubaidulina is balanced enough.
If you utter the word "Georgia" in front of Valery Gergiev before a performance, he gets kinda rough on the music. What can one expect, of the nephew of Stalin's favorite tank maker? LOL. On the day this was recorded, though, no one uttered the faithful word - unless it's the charms of Anne-Sophie Mutter that mollified Vladimir Putin's best buddy. In short, this is a good recording.
Mutter is a good violinist and the Bach concerti are beyond praise. What else could one ask for? The wondrous thing about Bach is he can satisfy both sides of the brain, the mathematical and the emotional, at the same time. Balance. Sometimes Haydn and Mozart accomplish the same feat. After them, deluges, eruptions, revolutions, calamities galore, followed by descent into mediocrity: John Adams. LOL.
Be that as it may, why do they say Bach is Baroque? He is all equilibrium & balance, like a classic. Not like that ever misshaped upholder of incoherence and ugliness in the Arts, Michelangelo.
Highly recommended, this recording...
|
|
|
|