Mutter's virtuosity is, as always, beyond reproach. She and the Trondheim Soloists go beyond themselves to capture the very essence of Vivaldi's extraordinary creativity and playfulness. It has become fashionable, however, to attempt a new interpretation of this beautiful score. In fact, the compulsion to do something new and different with Vivaldi's music makes each new performance of The Four Seasons akin to a familiar, but well-loved, battlefield.
The Mutter/Trondheim approach is best typified in Autumn. The first movement begins on a rather conservative note but the tempos soon get pulled around so much the listener feels rather drunk and disoriented. The movement's middle section is almost refined and the hunt that follows sounds as though it is taking place in Handel's England rather than in Vivaldi's Italy.
Early in her career, Mutter recorded this very same music with Herbert von Karajan. That interpretation was so smooth, so mellow and so gorgeous, and Mutter's extraordinary talent was showcased to such perfection, that this recording can't help but pale beside it.
This is an interesting CD and it certainly is a lot of fun, even though I doubt that it accomplishes all that Mutter wanted it to. The conversation between Mutter and Harald Wieser, included in the booklet, seems to indicate the playful and whimsical nature with which we are supposed to receive this recording. Okay, playful it is. But I think Anne-Sophie Mutter is so good, so accomplished and so extraordinary, that she deserved something just a little better.
