Stereophile
By Jason Victor Serinus
No violinist is more equipped to perform the music of Krzysztof Penderecki than Anne-Sophie Mutter. The composer dedicated his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No.2, Metamorphosen (1992–1996), to her after hearing her perform at a young age and then conducting her in Prokoviev's First Violin Concerto—Mutter subsequently recorded Metamorphosen with Penderecki conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in 1997—she has commissioned three works from him. He, in turn, dedicated each of them to her. If anyone can be said to have Penderecki's music in their blood, it is Anne-Sophie Mutter.
Which does not make any of the four works on her new two-CDs-for-the-price-of-one set from Deutsche Grammophon, Hommage à Penderecki, any easier to wrap your arms around on first hearing. Penderecki may have won five Grammy Awards for his music between 1987 and 2017, but his writing has not gotten less dissident or thorny with age. It may be tonal—some of his compositions can even be termed "post-Romantic"—but it's tough stuff that needs a tough soloist to showcase it at its best.
Here is where Mutter scores. On this recording, issued in honor of Penderecki's 85th birthday, the energy of her playing is fierce and uncompromising, and the body of her tone arrestingly full and meaty. While she can soar with the best—she is, without question, one of the best—her high notes possess a weight and substance that the highs of many others do not. She comes across as a Warrior of the Violin, in the best possible way.
Mutter also seems to have an innate sympathy for Penderecki's idiom. How much this has to do with his compositions in memory of the victims of Auschwitz, Hiroshima, and anti-government riots, or with his courage to stick to his unique language come what may, it is impossible to say. Regardless, in Penderecki's music she has found a true soul mate.