Tango Song & Dance

by Previn / Brahms

In this album's photographs, Anne-Sophie Mutter, now married to André Previn, looks not only radiantly beautiful, as always, but radiantly happy, and that state of mind is reflected in this light-hearted program. Except for the A-major Fauré Sonata and Previn's new work, which gives the disc its name, it consists of short bravura pieces, more than half of them transcriptions, all without much musical substance, but with plenty of opportunity for technical and tonal display. The disc's highlights are the Fauré, played with stunning brilliance and a soaring, shimmering tone, and Previn's piece, written for Mutter and premiered by her. The first movement sounds like a boogie-woogie parody of a waltz, the second is a calm, simple melody, the third is a ferocious, rhythmically irregular, jazzy run-around. The piece is tailor-made for Mutter's virtuosity, gorgeous tone and unlimited palette of colors, and she obviously enjoys every minute of it. However, playing jazz is clearly a new departure for her; four numbers from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in the Heifetz transcription sound manufactured and unspontaneous, and the style with its vocal inflections seems alien to her. The contrast with Previn's natural stylistic mastery, as he partners her here and in his own piece, is almost embarrassing. (Lambert Orkis plays the rest of the program.) Strangely enough, Mutter also shows little affinity for the gypsy idiom in Brahms' Hungarian Dances, which sound aggressive and exaggerated, or the Viennese lilt of three Kreisler favorites, where she substitutes manipulation for charm. And the excessive use of color becomes a mannerism, such as turning her vibrato on with full, throbbing intensity or completely off for a "white," eerie sound, without transition, and often without discernible reason. However, the record certainly offers some glorious fiddling. --Edith Eisler