The difference a conductor makes has rarely been clearer than on two new CDs featuring women violinists in modern-ish concerto repertoire. What quickly becomes clear is that, even when the fare is violin concertos, the baton is mightier than the bow.
Japanese violinist Akiko Suwanai hands in a clear CD-of-the-year candidate with her towering readings of the Sibelius and Walton violin concertos with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo, one of the most esteemed conductors of his generation (Philips). Their keen, often electric musical partnership elevates a recording she could easily have carried on her own.
Anne-Sophie Mutter, long one of my favorite violinists, plays Henri Dutilleux' "Sur le meme accord" in a live performance with the same partners with whom she played its premiere, Kurt Masur and the Orchestre National de France; follows it with the Bartok Second Concerto with the Boston Symphony under its old, long-term music director, Seiji Ozawa; and rounds it all off with the Stravinsky Concerto with the Philharmonia under Paul Sacher in a new CD from DG. You can hardly blame her for now doing most of her recording, for better or worse, with her new husband, Andre Previn.
It doesn't hurt that Suwanai plays the "Dolphin" Stradivari of 1714, once owned by Jascha Heifetz, but her sound is highly distinctive and, by purely aesthetic standards, one of the most beautiful to be heard today. While it's always evident that quality of tone is a central concern of hers, it's equally clear that that's all a matter of physical reflex now. It's rare to hear the kind of concentration on the expressive content of a concerto you hear with Suwanai on this remarkable disc.
Just about anyone who bothers playing the lofty Sibelius Violin Concerto, one of the composer's finest works, has done something special with it. Suwanai's does more to capture both its stratospheric flight and earthy bite than any other I know, yet she pulls the work's myriad solo "voices" together with a level of artistic integrity granted to few musicians.
The yearning for the beyond that suffuses this concerto — most often expressed in the huge upward intervals it assigns to the solo violin, and which Suwanai takes with a breathtaking sense of ease and deep-into-the-strings portamento — bleeds through every gesture of her urgent interpretation. The concomitant sense of being held back from the desired transport, the concerto's energizing counterforce, is articulated with a ferocity that never degenerates into ugliness.
Oramo's deft contribution only begins with the quietest shimmer of high strings ever captured on disc; it's impossible to tell quite when the music really starts, but it's connected to the silence from which it erupts. Throughout, he leads the orchestra Simon Rattle turned into one of the world's great recording orchestras through a traversal of the transfixing work that's both an ideal blend with Suwanai's playing but also a deft combination of blended and acutely distinctive instrumental sonorities. This is now the recording of a work I visit regularly that will be my first stop.
The Walton, too, somehow seems both bigger than usual in these musicians' sure grasp, and right-sized in a way that hints previous interpreters have missed something in it. The long, arching themes and phrases are all there in their customarily ravishing beauty, but there's also a sense of chiaroscuro I've never heard in the piece before.
Treasure trail
Mutter's CD properly begins with the Dutilleux, a perfectly crafted nine-minute "aria" the composer wrote for her at her request. As usual with Dutilleux, the orchestration is dense and detailed. Also as usual, the mastery of instrumental color and strong, unapologetic sense of lyricism make this a work to treasure. Mutter plays it lovingly and ecstatically, and the late 2003 live recording captures the riches she has found. Masur, with whom she does consistently groundbreaking work, and the French National Orchestra lend peak support and fully engaged partnership.
It's not hard to understand why Universal kept the Bartok Second in the can since 1991. Mutter's commitment is barely enough to let you overlook the coarse playing Ozawa encourages from the Bostoners, but she makes it worth putting up with them. DG dug even deeper for the 1988 recording of the Stravinsky, but Mutter and Sacher give it one of the all-time great readings.