![_Whitney Houston, 48, Has Died [Updated]](http://sfist.com/assets_c/2012/02/whitney-houston-dead-2-thumb-250x250-693364.jpg)
SFist Interviews Anne-Sophie Mutter
Anne-Sophie Mutter is classical music's attempt to attract the 18-34 male demographic. She's the symphony hall's answer to Monday Night Football. She can play the violin like no one else, but she also happens to be seriously attractive.
What's more, she'll play at Davies Sympony Hall on Monday 4/7 (a recital of Brahms sonatas with pianist Lambert Orkis). (We'll make the same recommendation re the ballet: guys, take your girlfriends there. For reals, they'll think you're sensitive, cultivated, and sophisticated; in the meantime, you'll have some eye candy to look at, so you'll have a good time. Who knows? You might even end up enjoying the music. )
Part of why she looks so stunning is that she's wearing Dior on stage. Say what you want about the French, they understand what women want, and they deliver. Says Anne-Sophie: "I went to Dior when I was 16 or 17, and they always understood what it means to be a violinist." Strapless, shoulder-free ankle-length gown, that what it means. She adds: "It's a work outfit. It's like a plumber, who has a working outfit." The teenager in us connects plumber fashion to butt crack to Anne-Sophie. He's a dumb teenager for sure, but he's happy.
In all seriousness, we started our chat talking about Brahms sonatas. We had been told that Brahms had a high bar for his work, and had destroyed more than 20 of his string quartets. How about the violin sonatas? "Yes, Brahms was famous for destroying a lot of his pieces. The G major sonata, the first one, is actually his 3rd or 4th attempt to write a sonata. There's a theory that the G major sonata was written after the death of his stepson, Felix Schumann..." She mention the sonata is based on the Regenlied, another song Brahms wrote, which melancholy tone inspired this sonata, and whose theme is folded into the first and last movement.
"We play it second in the performance. The reason that we don't start the program with it is that it's so delicate, so intimate," the audience has to be prepared for it. "So we start with the more sunnier sonata in A major. Again it's summer piece, it was written in Austria at the lake. He finished the violin concerto shortly before he wrote the G major sonata, that was a very fruitful period of his life."
"The A major sonata is much more romantic, much more light, I mean not the opposite of heavy, the opposite of dark. He had a feeling for a singer, a mezzo-soprano, a contralto, Hermine Spiess, who was spending a vacation at the lake. It starts with an allegro amabile, it says a lot about the content of the sonata, a rondo on the g string on the violin." We gather it says that Brahms had a big crush on Hermine.
"Then after the break, the D minor, it's such a tremendous piece that it's not chamber music anymore, it's like an orchestra piece. It has this very dark, very driven character, the 4th movement could not be more turbulent." She also talked about a crazy presto, the whole thing sure sounded spectacular.
She played for Karajan when she was 13 yo, how did that feel? "When I auditioned for him in 1976, I was not too keen on going. I thought it was a bad idea. I was thinking: of course, we would not collaborate, forget it! And I went to Berlin, did the audition, and we started a music collaboration that went on until he died, for thirteen years. It felt normal, that was just the life I had. The concert with him were like fixed points, high points, 3 or 4 concerts a year, no more. I could focus on the concerts and work on the pieces. It was goals to study for. We'd say we'll play the Mendehlson concerto in October. I did not really concertize until I was older. I did not have the repertory. This was my study years, I went to school, to music school in Switzerland, and I made a few concerts on the side.
It was very fruitful. The work ethics is what he engraved in my memory, what is the most present up to this day. Karajan, he was never unprepared, he was never unfocused. Whatever he did, flying his helicopter, flying his jet, driving his boat, he always did it to the limit of his abilities. Generations of singers and instrumentalists where shaped, and brought to the stage by him, and he is definitely one of the inspiration for my work with young people." Here, she's referring to her foundation which promotes young musician, sending back the Karajan elevator to the next generation of musicians.
We wondered why in the universe would she need two Stradivarius. After all, she can only play one at a time. "A violin is, for a string player, a part of their history. The first one is the one with which I did all my recordings with Karajan, except for the Tchaikovsky. The first Strad, I don't play it in public anymore. It's a violin with a history."
Fair enough. She caught a little bit of the Bay Area with her family. "My son just turned 14, we just spent a week vacation here in San Francisco, we had a splendid time. They went to the ballet, when I was still in Salzburg with the Berlin Philharmonic. We went to the basket ball, we went to Muir Woods, we went to Napa valley. He fell in love with the city, he wants to go to school in Berkeley." Good plan, then she'll have to visit more often. Go Bears!