She’s celebrating in style: to mark the 50th anniversary of her Lucerne stage debut, Anne-Sophie Mutter is popping the corks and performing three violin concertos and a solo piece in a single evening! And on top of that, she’s taking on the musical direction of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra herself — anything but an easygoing program. The works she has chosen are, for her, all “projects of the heart.” She introduced herself to the public with a Mozart concerto at her very first orchestral appearance at the age of nine, and Mozart also marked her first recording: the 1978 album with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Herbert von Karajan. André Previn, who was much more than just an artistic partner to her, composed numerous new works for Mutter, including his Violin Concerto No. 2 — one of 34 scores she has premiered so far. Among the most recent pieces she has launched is Likoo, a solo work by the Iranian composer Aftab Darvishi. It traces deep longings: the feelings of women who have lost their loved ones or their homeland, or who have to fight for their rights. “It’s important to me to give them a voice through this music,” says Anne-Sophie Mutter, who is keenly attuned to what is happening in the world.
