Anne Sophie Mutter - Documental

II on this week South Bank share one of today's most exciting musicians and Sophie mutter [Music] hello and Sophie Mota was born in 1963 in Ryan Feldon in southern Germany although there was no music in her immediate family she began playing the violin at the age of five and in 1978 seven she won a nationwide young musician competition with the highest distinction ever given this child prodigy has now developed into one of the most exciting after days violinists last year she was invited by the London Symphony Orchestra to perform at the Barbican Centre in a festival celebrating her virtuosity and versatility we filmed her during this series of concerts and spoke to her at her home in Kitzbuhel in Austria it's very hard to tell what really pushed me to to music because my my surrounding was absolutely unmusical there was nobody in the family who played either an instrument or was really interested in classical music [Music] you have to tell I think my interest might have been very much enhanced by recording of menuing because my eldest brother he also started playing violin and he recalls he's four years older than I am he recalls that he listened to recording of many playing a major what's a concerto and that was the trigger for him to start play violin it might also have been my impulse but I was too small I'm I can't remember that exactly but the first concert I was at was in Basel giving by given by David Oistrakh and he did prompt sonatas and that's something I will never forget I was just six and had started playing violin myself and his presence on stage the enormous personality and the hypnotic force he had also as human being that's something which always reminds in my brain I did one competition just about five months after I started playing violin which I won with first prize in some special whatever and then of course people were interested looking at a small child playing violin but thank God I was not pushed doing any concepts I did about two or three little concerts for uncles or whoever was there to Mustafa and then at age 10 I repeated the same competition with the same result and during this period my first teacher died and it was about nine months without a teacher that was the moment of really kind of adult decision because during this period I very strongly for a second time decided that I wanted to be violinist [Music] the stories let's start with the first first teacher he was absolutely informal I mean she was fantastic or small children I was there with nearly every morning of the week four five five days a week and she had a lot of dogs and turtles and you know animals whatever was there I mean it was incredible and so add second breakfast and eventually we started to do some scales or some sceptic whatever she gave me a fantastic basic technique and also the joy she enhanced the drawing music because during this four years in which I started with her I mainly played Chrysler and Society and things like that [Music] [Applause] [Music] unselfie motors precocious talent was developed further by a key influence in her life her second teacher Aida schnooky technische come to see Ivan de probleme das balsam becomes perfect she had an uber finally our first song scarred on to concentrate she owns very kite so does he even includes too tight others reality encounter she had to really bring some style into my playing and she also asked me to start to think myself and make interpretation or just play you know as you feel as you like without any motivation without any intellectual background but I have been with her about eight or ten years so it is really hard to you know to tell you within some minutes what I have learned from her but basically it was the enormous enrichment of my sound colors and of course the self thinking in 1976 at the age of 13 and Sophie Muto was invited to Berlin to play for the great German conductor Herbert von Karajan who later described her as the greatest young musical talent since menuhin the collaboration was to last for many years [Applause] Travis is in vz4 I'm different from the Hierophant as easy-peasy Hutton's women does mr. Dean bring for the sensor with multiple rows VCC for Henrietta manner final assist in the passage is civil resistance ot inlets in unison across the common Easterlin some design Philemon and Janey of the gang it I don't understand until now why why he accepted working with me but anyhow we worked together for 13 years and it's again something which very slowly enters your life but it's constantly there of course it was an enormous influence on my interpretation when I was young let's know no doubt because I had no experience at all and not a very strong interpretation in the age of thirteen fourteen fifteen over the years our relationship changed into I would not say partnership there what really be obnoxious but because I have changed his musician over this very long period that's half of my life I spent playing also with my stuff on kion and because of my content with other musicians and other sorts of than other kinds of repertoire I of course had build up my personality and had different views than here very strong different opinions but we always agreed on main construction of the work that means on the large line on always looking at the violin concerto from also the conductor's point of view looking adage as a complete whole score not only as one voice [Music] [Applause] [Music] the best friend I don't know I what I said is that it's the best part of my body that's definitely the truth and it's the extension as for every musician the instrument is the extinction of my soul in my heart this one is from 1710 that's the middle of the golden period in the best time of Stratovarius life and compared to the first read I had all I have this one is much larger sound and it also has this this edge this Tiger especially on the tree string probably playing on Stradivarius on any old violin with the enormous character which they all have their own personality is like trying to drive a Lamborghini you have to be a very good driver to to use that car you need some time to get the key to the character of the violin because every reaction time is very different [Music] every riling will react differently and so you you need ready to adjust yourself before you can open up all the many many colors you can produce them with this instrument that takes years and years and that's why I think that this thread gets better which probably is not the case but I just know it better and I know how to use it for what I want to express in music better it was in private collection for about 40 years but it was never played by real famous artists and that's probably lucky because he still is very healthy and he's not overworked I will do that now in the next 25 years [Music] [Music] in 1985 unselfie moto became the first holder of the chair of international violin studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London I decided to go to England because I felt that the maybe England would be the place where in Europe where they needed a violinist the most Germany they have a lot of good teachers and other places but England I felt that the violin class really needed you know some fresh blood she admitted herself she'd never taught and I spoke to her about this I having had experience of international artists who have tried to teach I said to of course the basic problem with you and a Sophie must be that you're such a natural talent that you've probably never faced some of the problems that our students face and you may not know the way around them you cannot reduce because of good teachers more great violinists that's something which just is good luck because a part of playing and having been taught the right way there are many many other points which have to come together character and memory and God knows what nerve strength and Trust the addiction to music and the really the very strong will to always give you a best even if you're half dead the day of the concert nobody cares the moment you go on stage you really have to give whatever you have and you know it's very strange combination in a musicians personality so that that's at least the other half a part of playing the instrument is personality in circumstances which have to just fall into into place in the right moment did you have to make the best out of it she's utterly ruthless and demanding she makes no concessions when she first came I wanted her to hear the whole range of performers from the best we got to the least successful now the least successful cause are very good indeed but I wanted her to get the the feel of the problem and I think initially he was somewhat shocked that we only had what she had said something like five people of world-class solo potential I was delighted to think we got five I thought was remarkable that we got five I thought if we have one in the generation we're doing pretty pretty well sometimes like a little sad about the fact that so many are only concerned about being soloist or big virtuoso I would find it more natural if if you just concentrate on loving music playing it very well doing just the best you can do with your gift because the other side would be and that's the big risk that teachers give their pupils to difficult things too early and sometimes you also can spoil a musician by that because stopping that habit and you know going back to the basics in a certain age like 18 where many things have been missing earlier on but it's very difficult for a musician so what's the most important thing in my opinion is that they very early start with a lot of technical studies and then just gradually build up the repertoire without any pushing because they want to bury early reach the point where they can play Tchaikovsky [Music] [Applause] [Music] particular but that is not penis Edwin I'm not conducting for this but you can't blame me I'm very tidy here she's very tidy if we play mr. photo and that fourth American even in pianissimo arms too much excuse me when I'd say don't place a lot you didn't react fast enough come on otherwise we don't say something and say something is a tedious it's good [Music] such a beautiful piece [Music] [Applause] [Music] whatever she does even if it is a little bit over the top it's done with impeccable taste they the things that she did in the Tchaikovsky somebody else may play quite differently but and they she does it with impact but it's because she can actually do it if you follow what I mean she's not she's driving herself to the edge but she can still still God still got control of history [Music] even if I make the impression that I go and yeah yeah there's a little tendency to wash have happy time to place my [Music] you know very easily if you compare musician to a painter you need a lot of different brushes and of course of colors and you need diversity you need contrasts if you played Caesar Frank or Tchaikovsky to play just lyrically beautiful that's that's not enough a part of the fact that after three or four minutes you don't feel it anymore the public doesn't feel what you want to express because there's no comparison there there is no depth behind there is no other color to really make sure that this is lyric so what you need also is aggressiveness [Music] [Applause] he's gone as quietly as possible the horn solar [Music] in October 1990 and Sophie Muto gave the UK premiere of a piece written specially for her by the Swiss composer Norma Rae her enthusiasm for contemporary music began however with a collaboration with the distinguished polish composer metal to the Slav ski who dedicated a number of pieces to her including partita and chain - two or three days before the world premiere I then met with us at ski the first time and I played it for him and fortunately I seem to have had the same ideas or the same feelings about his music that was for me a very lucky start through lot of laughs Keys writing I have developed even larger space in between the piano and the real completely pale colors like if you take the last few bars of his third movement in the chain to [Music] things like that where he rides Centanni barter but that was for me clear but that's something which which also for Mozart playing gives you just this kind of softness these different kind of softness you you need and that's something which I could not get from within myself I needed a little ask his inspiration for it and that was the beginning for my passion in contemporary music and I then started to play notice of his work over and over again and he orchestrated the patita for me and then know about Marais appeared in my life if you have to cut more compositors the take on Tommy just wanted to help or composite the on at the Bread Company via like a sauce with your interpretation if you do a premiering with your interpretation you really set the set the standard you set the mark how it has to be played because of your contact with the conversion because you are the first one to play it let's psychologically something which is very enriching victory we go Disick my doctor set a party lame-o say that with he get a cachet suable c'est la meme chose and Sophia so success the power for SK Cassius V not [Music] but this image from their condo veneering laughs I said to me Scylla Ashanti but now mm-hmm wait Jess cellmark nope onion Darvey my usual jealousy mm-hmm it is not what you taking for Barsky really chance - mm-hmm is that all do that on the tour right don't pop top it's acknowledged by McGee mm-hmm the party features the passengers we did not come do you feel - I feel this was played if you see one you if there are something is it's just written impossible to play then like your ended it with France so you can that's what I also did with Moravia as a part of the last movement when you write like it common core news which is a no this thing this is the instrument mostly played on the street and make man you know evening and there's a passage in the last movement of nor even show which should sound like that and he wrote free strings [Music] that is nearly impossible to play especially if the speed is slow then it's very hard to keep all three strings together so what I did now is giving one string one empty string to the first violin and these are little little composition I would not say arrows but just you know things you have to change and that's that's part of being in contact with the composer [Applause] [Music] and when we ask the tempo change I you following me or should I 164 yeah do you hear where I am yeah okay that's wrong with you there yeah good please maybe do 162 [Music] yeah that's very fast I don't think that contemporary music ever will have a large large following audience but I very strongly believe that if a musician or if a group of musicians plays a piece with conviction and if it has a strong emotional message like Marais although those last two Gigi years music definitively has then the public also will enjoy it in sensor that they really have new experiences new sound experiences that it will enrich their life at least partly she's very brave and she should be supported in that she is taking a trouble to ask people to write things for her so that she can be seen as a highly successful young satirist who is not only just there to play the standard repertory and recorded and so I want to make as much money as possible she's out there fighting for other things which is new music in effect saying don't be too narrow-minded just as you come to hear proms you take it in the Marais as well and I think that is terrific [Music] [Music] [Applause] some composers tend to make pieces which are very effectively sounding they're brilliantly sounded but they get boring after four five days because there's one climax after the other just kept exhausted he also need the quiet moments and that something Marais also is able to produce these quiet moments [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] somebody who has a such a superlative technique obviously enjoys they the obstacles that are comparable something far tougher and Tchaikovsky has written a concerto bristling with difficulties of one kind or another but she's completely on top of it in Tchaikovsky there are two elements I would I would see two elements in there the one which is the pure physical joy to play it it's fantastically violinist eclis written if you compare to just technically spoken to a Beethoven Violin Concerto which is against the violin written it's really written by a pianist there's so many are pages so many jams which are just against violinists nature Tchaikovsky is written it just fits like a glove incredible so in this sense of the way it's easy because once we have managed to deal with the technical aspects it's easy in a sense of way that it just comes naturally for me it's a physical joy to play it because you also have for once the excuse to let yourself go and you know put all what you have whatever there is speed and emotion and just driving forward back what you have a lot of Liberty they are [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you take the theme of the second movement which comes I think four times and every time the orchestration is different either you have a dialogue with the winds or you are only with strings together you have to make something out of it otherwise it could because it's so simple it could get boring it could get I would not say second-rate music but you have to make something out of it and that that gives you the freedom to use all the different vibrato tools you have and that's that's what I do with the second movement [Music] [Applause] [Music] in the past they have been many many great violinist which you know I don't know which I probably only came here on very old recordings that never does just is to well to a musician especially not with the technique we had 30 40 years ago Fritz Kreisler on one hand on the other hand if you listen to his interpretation of his condensed of the bit of burning concerto you get the shock I mean you would not let you chew bill on the street with with technique like that but he said were different times we are now much more perfect in a sense but they had very strong personalities and because the media was not involved in their career the one who made it up to the stage was definitely also a strong position today the media is involved in the marketing of classical musicians yes the connection between plane and personal image has become an important consideration every young artist there was extremely natural I think because it's not a profession it's just essential needs as music as passion in his life nowadays Class B music is marketed it has not been 40 years ago four years ago it was probably for pure enjoyment of old music lovers today there are many many different aspects in in the world of music there are social aspects you go somewhere because you want to be seen because ticket is expensive things like that like size book on the other hand transport at least what it was in in the past was a place where you really could get the best so that's the best orchestras and the best possible surrounding for optimum music making but it of course always has two sides you have people who love music but you also have the ones who pay enormous amount of money which you need to get such a festival they come out of other reasons I don't see any danger I see a danger in the fact that today at least in a short term range it is possible to market an artist I don't think that an artist who has no message who has no personality nothing really by himself to say about the composition that he will survive on stage over a longer period but it's sometimes said to see that classical music is now used too much in the media just to make money I'm very much for popular music but there is a limit and especially in violin istic repertoire there's trust one or two pieces which are meant for a large audience like Four Seasons we value like most of the Baroque music but other things like a beautiful violin concerto which takes up to 47 minutes there is a piece where you need music lovers people who understand the work who take the time to sit down listen to it it's not a quick fix it's not the area of five minutes or a song or three minutes it's something which requires a different kind of education also different kind of public that you will not achieve by marketing methods they use today we can pick up on the fact that years and where deluxe with who is the same age as a lot of people who are buying these crossover type of albums she looks she dressed as well and I think she has a very good chance again well marketed in terms of coming across to those people without standing aloof hmm by now I can decide myself what I want to do I mean I'm not in a situation where I just desperately want to you know get concerts or whatever and start my life it's already there and what happens today with marketing doesn't concern my personal life because I'm strong enough to say no [Music] the question now is would be to put it the other way around how would I feel or how will I feel when I stop playing in the summer 91 4 on stage I mean I went to reconyx it's on hopefully practice a little bit enlarge my repertoire thought I'd change to some contemporary musing in chamber music but anyhow I will not go on stage for at least 8 or 10 months so that will be very interesting just to watch what other sides of my brain I can activate during this period and I'm very much planning to you know go more to galleries to just have the luxury to draw drive or fly somewhere to see new exhibition which you don't have this time you just cannot spare with with a crazy schedule and I saw a risk in that and that's the reason why I planned this sabbatical year already five years ago I'm only concentrating on music since about 13 years that's not enough on a long term life that's not enough also as musician you cannot always recreate yourself even if we have contemporary composers and other musical friends and so on you need to develop yourself also as human being because that will reflect in music otherwise you get artificial flower [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] music is very important part of my life and it's probably the language where I can express myself or whatever I have to express the best English staff to talk they're definitely not the language in which I express myself best but what I have learned over the last few years is that music will not be the most important thing in my life anymore I would never sacrifice my private life for music because making one human being happy is more important than music but anyhow music will always be and very very important and necessary for me to to live the contact with great art that's that's the most beautiful profession you can have [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] descubrelo spectacular elevation machine nnot sega cultural nova treinta condo 0 4 million Moscone hostel warden and finally serve MSE totally collagenous espanol Carlos hora de película mama completion honest [Applause]

Channel: Salvador Govea

Views: 27,079

Keywords: progrockSGV, GOVEA, Prog, Progressive, Rock, Progresivo, Mexicano, Mexico, Alternativo, Avant, garde, Anne, Anne Sophie Mutter, Documental, Documentary

Id: RmYdskJTbFc

Length: 51min 59sec (3119 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 01 2019