Gramophone – September 2019

GRAMOPHONESEPTEMBER 201917

ANNE-SOPHIE MUTTER

nne-SophieMutteris a violinist of broad

horizons.Shewilltalk about the 20th-century

painterswho’veinfluenced her, the unusual

pedagogues,theintellectual debates over

composers.Justfor a moment, however,

shewantstotalk about a book that

wasimportant to her when she was

growingupin the Black Forest. It’s

asimplefairy tale, but the Black Forest

isafairy-tale sort of place, particularly

whereMutter lived, right in the crook

ofsouth-west Germany, close to the

Frenchand Swiss borders.

Thisbook was about a small boy,

sosmall that his father was rather

disappointed in him. But he had

a talent for the fiddle.

‘When he played

backwards,’ Mutter remembers, ‘things would

become small, and when he played forwards,

things would grow.’

The story continues. A greedy king sees

how he can take advantage of the boy with the

enchanted violin. ‘He takes the boy and tells him

to play for his army, which will then be bigger

thananybodyelse’s–andhe’llwinthewar.

Buttheboyplaysbackwards.Thebadking

shrinkstothesizeofagrainofriceand

disappearssomewhereintothefloor.Andthat

wastheendofthestory.’Muttersaysthatas

alittlegirlshewouldreadthestoryoverand

overagain.‘Iwasfascinatedbythepossibilities.

Thataviolincouldbemagical.Anditis.’

ItisonecluebehindMutter’sunexpected

newproject,‘AcrosstheStars’,acollaboration

withthekingoffilmmusicJohnWilliams

(Oscars:five;Grammys:24;tear-jerking

interludes:toomanytocount).

Inthisspace-andtime-traversingalbum,

theMutterStradcastsHogwarts-brandedspells

(‘Hedwig’sTheme’fromHarryPotterandthe

Philosopher’sStone),chasesYodaandthe

Skywalkersiblingsacrossagalaxyfar,faraway

(StarWarsandsequels),depictstheeponymous,

blood-suckingpatricianinJohnBadham’s 1979

Dracula(‘NightJourneys’),andrattlesalong

afterTintinandhisdastardlyadversaries

(‘TheDuel’fromTheAdventuresofTintin,2011).

It’sonlyashame,saysMutter,thatsomeof

Williams’sabsolutebeltersdidn’tmakethelist.

Sodoesshebelieveaviolincanfly?‘Yes,

Iwouldhavelovedtoplaythethemefrom

Superman!AndIndianaJones–areyoukidding?

WarHorse,too–horribletitleforafilm,

wonderfulmusic.Butthatisnotfortheviolin.

That was John’s decision. Also Jaws!’ The last

seems like a bizarre proposition. And in the end

it was. ‘The violin is too high in the register.

There is a limit.’

Mutter had worked with Williams before,

on the 2017 piece Markings for violin, harp

and strings. She wanted to coax him into

writing a full-blown concerto, but the latest

collaboration instead turned into this film music

project. Williams is 87 years old, but Mutter, 56,

still lives in hope. ‘I think, without saying too

much, that he is not yet finished with the idea

of writing a concerto for me.’

Yet she does not believe that ‘Across the Stars’

represents a compromise or ‘second best’.

Speaking in the green room of the Bayerischer

Rundfunk television and radio studios in her

home city of Munich (she has just done a live

interview on regional TV), she says that the

project that emerged had been ‘maybe more

out of reach’ than the concerto idea, ‘because

John definitely didn’t expect me to be interested

in playing some of his most iconic film themes,

and I didn’t dare to ask. But then there’s

André – or then there was André ...’

Sherefers,ofcourse,toAndréPrevin, who

diedinFebruarythisyear.MutterandPrevin

weremarriedfrom 2002 to2006,andremained

closefriendsandcolleaguesaftertheirdivorce.

AndPrevinandWilliams’srelationshipwent

backdecades.‘Theywerebestpalsfrom when

theymetattheageofaround 18 or 19 and

startedoutinHollywood,’Mutterexplains.

‘Movinglyenough,thestudioinwhichwe

recordedthisnewalbumwaswhereAndré’s

careerinfilmalsostarted,some 60 years ago,

andsoinawayitallcametoaclose.For

thosefivedaysinwhichwewererecording in

LosAngeles,André’sspiritwasdefinitely in the

air.’Sheistalkingaboutwhatisnowthe Sony

studiolotinCulverCity,thesameroom where

themusicforTheWizardofOzandSingin’ in the

Rainwasrecorded.Thosefilmswereproduced

byMGM,wherePrevinworkedfor 16 years –

hisfirstjoboutofhighschool.

Previnwasmuchmorethanjustaguiding

lightforMutterandWilliams.Hebrought them

togetherandpointedthecomposertowards some

ofthelessiconicfilmscoresthathethought

couldworkwellinviolin-ledarrangements,

amongthemtheDraculapieceand‘Nice To Be

Around’fromthe’70sromanticdramaCinderella

Liberty,athemeoriginallyplayedbythevirtuoso

harmonicaplayerTootsThielemans.Previn

insistedWilliamsadaptit.AndhetoldWilliams

‘As a child, I was fascinated

by the possibilities of the violin.

That it could be magical. And it is’

PHOTOGRAPHY:

KRISTIAN SCHULLER/DG