Finding Passion in Playing Through Tragedy

The last week of February was a tough one for Anne-Sophie Mutter. Not only did the famed violinist lose her former husband and longtime musical partner when André Previn died on February 28, but she also came down with influenza, forcing postponement of the Los Angeles opening concert in her upcoming five-city American tour, making the Santa Barbara show on Friday, March 8, now the debut date.

“He was an amazing friend, an incredible musical collaborator, and a very unusual and fabulous man,” Mutter said of Previn last Monday morning, one year to the day since she premiered another of Previn’s pieces composed for her. “It was totally astounding to witness a man of such brilliant intelligence and wit… He was just pure music – 24/7. There wasn’t a day in his life where he was not connected to music; even in reading literature it was thinking about using the poetry for a song. He was constantly creative, a multifaceted talent. I have no doubt that he will be immortal.”

Despite his death, Mutter isn’t finished premiering Previn’s music, she noted, that that the composer-pianist gave her two new works for Christmas and her birthday, which she plans to play in the coming months.

But in the meantime, there’s the mini-tour of the states where the violinist will team up with pianist Lambert Orkis, her recital partner of more than 30 years, for a program of masterworks by Mozart, Debussy, Poulenc, and Ravel. Mutter called particular attention to Mozart’s sonata in B-flat Major, K. 454, extolling “the gorgeous second movement that rises to a place where it’s like a couple conversing and finishing each other’s sentences.” She also noted that she might be playing the composer’s E minor sonata, K. 304, for the last time this month, because of unfortunate timing.

“It’s very beautiful, introverted, and sorrowful, the only one Mozart wrote in a minor key. But it was on the program twenty-four years ago when my first husband died, and now here we are again, with Andre [dying]. But actually it’s a program he would have enjoyed a lot [because of the prevalence of French composers]. The concert could almost have been conceived of as a tribute to Andre, who first introduced me to Poulenc, and now it really is.”

Whatever the recital program, Mutter doesn’t waver from her partnership with Orkis, noting that beyond the music the pair are good friends who are “happy as clams” enough to have vacationed together despite their frequent divergent approaches to a musical work. “We like that we have different viewpoints and go down different alleys,” she said. “It’s always a work in progress with us, which is great because neither of us believes in finding a formula for a piece of music and then repeating it once it’s successful. We share the curiosity to go back and try a new phrasing or a change of tempo, which can shape the musical gesture.”

Friday’s concert closes with the Poulenc sonata, written in the aftermath of the murder of Garcia Lorca in the early days of World War II. “It’s quite a tragic piece, with lots of puzzle parts, and outbursts and militaristic themes,” Mutter said. “And it’s a stroke of genius, just one idea after another. Playing it at the end of the evening is almost a reminder of the horrors of war, that we should never go back there, do anything to avoid such cruelty, separation and pain… Maybe we can only understand beauty with the backdrop of tragedy. But the question is do we have to self-inflict tragedy? Music is special because in an evening together we have the opportunity to feel the same sensations, connect through the emotional evoked by the music. It can help us remember we’re the same, if only for a moment before we go back to our very secluded and strange existence.”

Classical Corner: Dickens of a Concept

Tales of Two Cities: The Leipzig-Damascus Coffee House, the latest multimedia offering from Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, is intended to illuminate the title cities’ commonality in that each enjoyed a lively tradition of the finest musicians of the mid-18th century performing in coffeehouses. CAMA’s Masterseries – which has presented three of the ensemble’s previous projects at the Lobero in the past decade (The Galileo Project, House of Dreams, and J.S Bach: The Circle of Creation) – has booked Tafelmusik back at the Lobero on Saturday, March 9, for its new stage creation that combine live music, text and stunning projections…

That same evening, Santa Barbara Strings Artistry of Strings benefit concert at Hahn Hall features founder/director/violin Mary Beth Woodruff, violinist Jane Chung, violist Basil Vendryes, and cellist Andrew Smith for a program of Beethoven String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 18, No. 6; Shostakovich String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 108; and Mendelssohn String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 12. A complimentary artists reception with local wines follows…

Earlier Saturday afternoon, the Santa Barbara Music Club settles into the Faulkner Gallery, Santa Barbara Public Library, for a free concert featuring violist Rodney Wirtz and composer-pianist Paolo Tatafiore in a program titled “Retro Works.” Tatafiore’s Variations for Viola and Piano – described by the composer as having the structure that emulates Bach’s famous Goldberg Variationsin the vein of canonic writing – will be followed by Chopin’s Sonata for Piano in Bb Minor, Op. 35.