Anne-Sophie Mutter

Anne-Sophie Mutter
Mutter in 2019
Born	Rheinfelden, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Occupation	Violinist
Spouse(s)	Detlef Wunderlich ​ ​ (m. 1989; died 1995)​ André Previn ​ ​ (m. 2002; div. 2006)​
Children	2
Musical career
Genres	Classical
Instrument(s)	Emiliani Stradivarius 1703 Lord Dunn-Raven Stradivarius 1710
Years active	1976–present
Musical artist
Website	anne-sophie-mutter.com

Anne-Sophie Mutter (born 29 June 1963) is a German violinist. She was supported early in her career by Herbert von Karajan. As an advocate of contemporary music, she has had several works composed especially for her, by Sebastian Currier, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutosławski, Norbert Moret, Krzysztof Penderecki, André Previn, Wolfgang Rihm, John Williams and others. Since her orchestral debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1977, Mutter has performed as a prominent soloist with numerous leading orchestras worldwide.

Early life

Mutter was born in the German town of Rheinfelden, Baden-Württemberg which lies some 15 kilometres (9 mi) east of Basel on the northern bank of the High Rhine river, across which lies the Swiss town of the same name. Her parents were Karl Wilhelm Mutter and Gerlinde Mutter and she was raised with two older brothers. While Mutter's father was a journalist, who edited a newspaper in Baden-Württemberg, her mother was the first woman in her family to graduate from college. Although no one in her family played a musical instrument, Mutter's family was passionate about classical music.

Mutter began playing the piano at the age of five, and shortly afterwards took up the violin. At the age of six, Mutter won the National Music Prize, and in 1972, she gave her first concert with the Winterthurer Stadtorchester. Inspired by a recording of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Wilhelm Furtwängler, she began studying with Erna Honigberger, a pupil of Carl Flesch. After Honigberger's death she continued her studies with Aida Stucki at the Winterthur Conservatory.

Career

Mutter's playing began to receive attention and she stopped attending school to devote herself full-time to music. Conductor Herbert von Karajan arranged for her to play with the Berlin Philharmonic. Only 13 years old at the time, she made her public debut on stage in 1976 at the Lucerne Festival, where she played Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major. In 1977, she performed at the Salzburg Festival and with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Critics praised the level of maturity in Mutter's performance, with one reviewer of Die Welt writing, "“She played it ravishingly, and above all, she did not play it at all like a child prodigy. Her technique is fully mature.” At 15, Mutter made her first recording of the Mozart Third and Fifth violin concerti with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.

In 1980, Mutter made her American debut with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. In 1985, at the age of 22, she was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (London) and head of its faculty of international violin studies and in 1986 an honorary member. In 1988, she made a grand tour of Canada and the United States, playing for the first time at Carnegie Hall. In 1998 she played and recorded for CD and DVD the complete set of Beethoven's Violin Sonatas, accompanied by Lambert Orkis; these were broadcast on television in many countries.

In October 2006, on French television, Mutter appeared to indicate that she would be retiring when she turned 45, in 2008. However the following month she said that her words were "misinterpreted" and that she would continue to play as long as she felt she could "bring anything new, anything important, anything different to music".

Repertoire

Though her repertoire includes many classical works, Mutter is particularly known for her performances of contemporary music. Several pieces have been specially written for or dedicated to her, including Henri Dutilleux's Sur le même accord, Krzysztof Penderecki's Second Violin Concerto, Witold Lutosławski's Chain 2 and the orchestral version of Partita, and Wolfgang Rihm's Gesungene Zeit ("Time Chant"), Lichtes Spiel, and Dyade. In August 2007, she premiered Sofia Gubaidulina's Violin Concerto No. 2 "In tempus praesens." Her ex husband, conductor and composer André Previn, dedicated his Violin Concerto "Anne-Sophie" (2001) to her; they recorded the pièce with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2003 and were awarded a Grammy for the recording in 2005.

World renowned film score composer and five times Academy Awards winner John Williams composed original music for her, including a pièce for violin, strings and harp called "Markings" (2017), a collection of arrangements of movie themes composed by him for violin and orchestra (recorded by Mutter and Williams with the Recording Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles in "Across the Stars", 2019) and Williams' second violin concerto (composed 2021, to be recorded by Mutter with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the author as conductor, in 2022). Mutter also appeared as soloist in John Williams' debut concert with the Wiener Philharmoniker on 28 and 29 January 2020, recorded by Deutsche Grammophon and released in the live album "John Williams in Vienna", which became the best-selling album of orchestral music in 2020.

She has received various prizes, including several Grammys throughout her career and the Polar Music Prize and the Praemium Imperiale, both in 2019.

Appearance

Mutter is known for performing in strapless gowns. Mutter explained that she felt having fabric on her shoulder made it too slippery to hold her violin firmly while she was playing.

Instruments

She owns two Stradivarius violins: the Emiliani of 1703, and the Lord Dunn-Raven Stradivarius of 1710. She also owns a Finnigan-Klaembt dated 1999 and a Regazzi dated 2005.

Public engagement

Throughout her career, Mutter has held many benefit concerts for various organizations such as Save the Children Japan, Save the Children Yemen, Artists against Aids, the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Hanna and Paul Gräb Foundation’s Haus der Diakonie in Wehr-Öflingen, the Bruno Bloch Foundation, Beethoven Fund for Deaf Children, SOS Children’s Villages in Syria and others. Since March 2022, Mutter has been giving benefit concerts for Ukrainians in light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Mutter founded the Association of Friends of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation e.V. in 1997 and further established the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation in 2008, which supports young stringed instrument players and provides scholarships for talented individuals. In 2021, Anne-Sophie Mutter was elected president of the German Cancer Aid.

Personal life

In 1989, Mutter married her first husband, Detlef Wunderlich, with whom she had two children, Arabella and Richard. Wunderlich died of cancer in 1995. She dedicated her 1999 recording, Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, to his memory. She married the pianist, composer, and conductor André Previn in 2002. The couple divorced in 2006, but continued to collaborate musically and maintained their friendship.

Awards and recognition

• Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:
  • Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lambert Orkis for Beethoven: The Violin Sonatas (Nos. 1–3, Op. 12; Nos. 1–3, Op. 30; "Spring" Sonata) (2000)
• Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra):
  • Anne-Sophie Mutter and André Previn (conductor) for Previn: Violin Concerto "Anne-Sophie"/Bernstein: Serenade (2005)
  • Anne-Sophie Mutter, Krzysztof Penderecki (conductor) and the London Symphony Orchestra for Penderecki: Violin Concerto No. 2, Metamorphosen (1999)
  • Anne-Sophie Mutter, James Levine (conductor) and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Berg: Violin Concerto/Rihm: Time Chant (1994)
• Naming of Anne-Sophie-Mutter-Weg in Wehr, Baden-Württemberg (Eng: Anne-Sophie Mutter way) (27 August 1988)
• Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg (1999)
• Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art (1999)
• Sonning Award (2001; Denmark)
• Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art (2002)
• Herbert von Karajan Music Prize (Baden-Baden, 2003)
• Knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2005)
• Victoires de la Musique Classique (2006)
• Grand Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (2007)
• Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (2008)
• Mendelssohn Prize (Music category) (Leipzig, 2008)
• Merit Cross 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany (Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse) (2009)
• Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur (France, 2009) for her commitment to the works of contemporary music by French
• Echo Klassik as Instrumentalist (2009)
• European St. Ulrichs Prize (July 2009)
• Doctor Honoris Causa from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) (2010)
• Prize of the Cultural Foundation of Dortmund
• Brahms Prize (Brahms Society of Schleswig-Holstein, 2011)
• Atlantic Council Distinguished Artistic Leadership Award (2012)
• Bavarian Order of Merit
• Cultural Honour of the City of Munich
• Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music
• Erich Fromm Prize for her comprehensive social work (2011)
• Gustav Adolf Prize of Gustav-Adolf-Werk of the Evangelical Church in Hesse-Nassau for her socially diaconal commitment
• The Medal of the Lutosławski Centennial (25 January 2013)
• Named a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (April 2013)
• Echo Klassik 2014 for the album 'Dvořák'
• Named an Honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford
• 11th Yehudi Menuhin Prize from the Foundation Albeniz (2016)
• Medalla de Oro al Merito en las bellas Artes (2016)
• Romanian Cultural Order of Merit with the rank of Grand Officer (2017)
• Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis (2018)
• Polar Music Prize (2019)
• Berliner Bär (BZ-Cultural Prize) (2019)
• Praemium Imperiale (2019)
• Cultural Award of Baden-Württemberg (2020)
• Opus Klassik, Category Instrumentalist (Violin) for Across the Stars (2020)
• Honorary Degree Of Doctor Honoris Causa from the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków (2022)

Discography

Deutsche Grammophon:

• Mozart Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 5 (1978)
• Beethoven Triple Concerto (1980)
• Beethoven Violin Concerto (1980)
• Mendelssohn Violin Concerto / Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 (1981)
• Brahms Violin Concerto(1982)
• Brahms Double Concerto (1983)
• Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (1988)
• Lutosławski Partita & Chain 2 / Stravinsky Violin Concerto (1988)
• Beethoven: The String Trios (1989)
• Bartok Violin Concerto No. 2 / Moret En Rêve (1991)
• Berg Violin Concerto / Rihm Time Chant (1992)
• Carmen-Fantasy (1993)
• Romance (1995)
• Sibelius Violin Concerto (1995)
• The Berlin Recital (1996)
• Brahms Violin Concerto / Schumann Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra (1997)
• Penderecki Violin Concerto No. 2 / Bartok Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 (1997)
• Beethoven The Violin Sonatas (1998)
• Vivaldi The Four Seasons (1999)
• Recital 2000 (2000)
• Lutosławski Partita for Violin and Orchestra / Chain 2 (2002)
• Beethoven Violin Concerto (2002)
• Tango Song and Dance (2003)
• Previn Violin Concerto / Bernstein Serenade (2003)
• Tchaikovsky & Korngold Violin Concertos (2004)
• Dutilleux Sur le même accord / Bartok Violin Concerto No. 2 / Stravinsky Concerto en ré (2005)
• Mozart The Violin Concertos (2005)
• Mozart Piano Trios K502, K542, K548 (2006)
• Mozart The Violin Sonatas (August 2006)
• Simply Anne-Sophie (2006)
• Gubaidulina in tempus praesens (2008)
• Mendelssohn Violin Concerto (2009)
• Brahms Violin Sonatas (2010)
• Rihm: Lichtes Spiel; Currier: Time Machines (2011)
• The Complete Musician: Highlights (2011)
• Asm 35: The Complete Musician (2011)
• Dvořák: Violin Concerto (2013)
• The Silver Album (2014)
• Anne-Sophie Mutter Live: The Club Album from Yellow Lounge (2015)
• Mutterissimo: The Art of Anne-Sophie Mutter (2016)
• Franz Schubert: Trout Quintett(with Daniil Trifonov, Maximilian Hornung, Hwayoon Lee, und Roman Patkaló)(2017)
• Hommage à Penderecki (2018)
• The Early Years (2018)
• The Tokyo Gala Concert (2019)
• “Hedwig’s Theme” from Harry Potter (2019)
• Across the Stars (2019) (Works of John Williams; Direction: John Williams)
• "Remembrances" & "Markings" (2019)
• Beethoven Triple Concerto & Symphony 7 (with Barenboim and Yo-Yo Ma) (2020)
• John Williams in Vienna (2020)
• Violin Concerto No. 2 & Selected Film Themes (2022)

EMI Classics:

• Mozart Violin Concertos Nos. 2 & 4 (1982)
• Bach Violin Concertos / Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra (1983)
• Brahms Violin Sonatas (1983)
• Vivaldi The Four Seasons (1984)
• Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole / Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen (1985)
• Mozart Violin Concerto No. 1, Sinfonia Concertante (1991)
• Meditation: Vivaldi, Mozart, Massenet, Sarasate (1995)