Right at the outset of this recital, as the violin floats softly into the opening measures of the Prokofiev D Major Sonata and soon thereafter darts away with butterfly-like skittishness, one can sense that this is Anne-Sophie Mutter in top form, playing with her particular combination of expressive intimacy and nervous flight while conveying, obviously in collusion with partner Lambert Orkis, at least the appearance of spontaneity.
The program, recorded at two live concerts in Stuttgart during her 2000 world tour, reaches a peak of intensity in the Four Pieces of Anton Webern, music of exquisite, epigrammatic stillness, performed here with such dynamic extremes that one must surrender one's complete attention to it, and after which the big ultra-romantic Sonata of Ottorino Respighi enters like a drenching spring torrent.
