The Bartok Sonata was recorded at the same time as the works on the Mutter/Orkis Berlin recital which DD found prone to “interpretative extravagances” (12/96). Given the heavyweight competition – in particular, the stunning performance by Gidon Kremer and Oleg Maisenberg – it would be difficult to hail this new account as an outright winner. But it’s also hard to imagine a finer one, not least because the particular technical and interpretative challenges of one of Bartok’s finest works suit these players down to the ground. This is a reading informed from first to last with a perfect sense of style, and the recording has the ideal blend of clarity and atmosphere.
I approached Penderecki’s Second Violin Concerto, completed in 1995, with some trepidation, having found so many of his later works overlong and under-inspired. As a 38-minute single movement, it is undoubtedly diffuse in form, and the quality of the musical thinking is also variable.Nevertheless, the predom- inant tone of direct and impassioned lament, occasionally recalling the powerful austerity of the composer’s earliest works, is strongly projected in a performance which benefits enormously from Anne-Sophie Mutter’s charisma and virtuosity. The faster episodes are often derivative (I’m sure I heard the “DSCH” motif), but there is sufficient variety of texture, and rhythmic pattern, to ensure that the music never stagnates. Above all, the hauntingly understated ending reinforces the impression of a work that, warts and all, deserves to be heard – and especially in this supremely authoritative and excellently recorded version.'