The Assertive Sonic Self: Anne-Sophie Mutter, on Making Every Note Heard in a Large Hall

W   orld-class Mozart interpreters will have a carefully worked-out sound world in mind for each piece, and a profound sense of the music’s underlying rhetoric—that is, the language of tension and release that unlocks Mozart’s phrases and allows them to unfold as statements of great eloquence and often subtle but deep emotion... The best argument for playing these works without a conductor is that the soloist and orchestra can communicate directly, without an intermediary.”
  —  Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe.

A ttended BSO’s opening last night, with Anne-Sophie Mutter performing (and conducting) Mozart violin concertos Nos. 3 and 5 with a ~20-instrument ensemble of BSO members. Admirable in all respects. Her pianissimos were fully audible, and the ensemble had sensitivity and control over its dynamics to let her sound come through.

I n part, the contrast and audibility are a result of the somewhat wider, European-style vibrato that Mutter chooses. Such ‘focus’ and projection of the voice and ‘self’—all that comes from the tiny violin box!

T hese Mozart concertos are wonderful, innocent things—ones that might merit less vibration in a smaller, more intimate venue. But the aesthetic rationale for vibrating more demonstratively in this way is clear, I think—the reason comes from the acoustic requirements of performing in a large hall like this, packed nearly to capacity with people as it was last night. In other words, authenticity in performance is not just faithfulness-to-the-text or appropriate in an historical performance practice sense. It presents a clean and stylistically coherent rendition, and one that takes into account not only the dialogue with the ensemble but also the dialogue with the audience under the conditions and constraints that prevail in the performance space. In this case, the wider-than-usual vibrato was in no way an affective, romanticized conceit, but instead was an accomodation to the realities of the large hall—an accomodation on behalf of us in the audience: Mutter communicating with us directly, as directly as she did with her ensemble colleagues.

M utter’s cadenzas were inspired—fresh as if they were improvised on the spot, and especially beautiful, magical. She makes you believe that the story she is telling is true, a personal fact, and you are the first one she is telling it to. Why we go to hear serious music, performed live.

• Anne-Sophie Mutter website
  
• Eichler J. For BSO opener, Mutter's Mozart... and no baton. Boston Globe, 01-OCT-2011.
  
• BSO page, 30-SEP-2011 program.
  
• Violin concerto No. 3 in G, K.216, score at IMSLP
  
• Violin concerto No. 5 in A, K.219, score at IMSLP
  
• Kun shoulder rest
  
• Cumming N. The Sonic Self: Musical Subjectivity and Signification. Indiana Univ, 2001.
  
• Hauck W. Vibrato on the Violin. Rokos K, tr. Bosworth, 1980.
  
• Silvela Z. A New History of Violin Playing: The Vibrato and Lambert Massart's Revolutionary Discovery. Universal, 2001.
  
• Stowell R, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Violin. Cambridge Univ, 1993.