Brahms: Double Concerto & C. Schumann: Piano Trio

Description

Anne-Sophie Mutter joins her protégé and Sony Classical artist, cellist Pablo Ferrández, for this new recording of Brahms’s Double Concerto and the still underperformed Piano Trio by Clara Schumann. Ferrández, who released his first album on Sony Classical in 2021, was acclaimed by critics and was also a member of Anne-Sophie Mutter’s ensemble, Mutter's Virtuosi. He has since won an Opus Klassik award and embarked on an important solo career. Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter has been one of the great names in classical music since her childhood collaborations with Hebert von Karajan. In addition to her outstanding musicianship, she has always sought to help and support new generations of musicians while improving her own ability to communicate through the violin. In January 2022, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Pablo Ferrández recorded Brahms’s Double Concerto in Prague with the great Czech Philharmonic conducted by Manfred Honeck, after exciting collaborations on the same work in Madrid and Oxford. The concerto is a chamber work with symphonic impact: a piece based on confrontation, at the heart of which lies the most beautiful expression of love between complicit musicians. From her collaboration with Pablo Ferrández, Anne-Sophie Mutter drew a “fresh, open and new” artistic work with a musician who, in her view, is “at the forefront” of the new generation of cellists. Artistically inseparable from Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann was a composer in a man’s world and was often overlooked. “They both adored each other artistically and Johannes Brahms often asked her for advice,” said Anne-Sophie Mutter. Their human and artistic relationship bound and inspired them. For Anne-Sophie Mutter, diversity also played an important role in the choice of repertoire in order to highlight a composer too often set aside in music history. Clara Schumann’s 1846 Piano Trio is one of her most beautiful works - a piece full of turbulence, complexity and deep longing that led Anne-Sophie Mutter and her faithful pianist Lambert Orkis to intense musical conversations. The performance recorded in the Munich studio is unique in its kind because it emphasizes the individuality of spirit and the musicality of Clara Schumann. “I am inspired to have such a musical connection with Pablo,” reveals Anne-Sophie Mutter about her work with Pablo Ferrández. “Mutter is the ideal artist,” says Pablo Ferrández. “There is always an idea behind her playing, everything happens for a reason. It is an honor not only to play and record with her, but also to know her and have her as a mentor.”