[78-L] Gershwin 1, Mutter 0

[David Lennick]

If all you've seen is the YouTube clip, there was more..not of Mutter, but a 
silly setup with Letterman holding up a huge box set of ASM's 35 year career 
(or whatever it is), coming over to her with the box set etc. And her 
appearance was announced in the daily TV listings. A music item is always the 
last thing on the program. But yes, she may have been asked to speed it up.

dl

On 10/2/2011 7:37 AM, Mark Bardenwerper wrote:
> On 10/1/2011 10:27, David Lewis wrote:
>> If you are not very well disposed to Herbert von Karajan, and I realize that Mr. Lennick is not so, it is
>> easy to dismiss ASM's talents as a violinist; she was indeed his protege, and her first husband was
>> HvK's personal secretary, a man much older than she was at the time they were married.
>>
>> However, I have heard her under far better conditions, in the Brahms sonatas at the Chandler, and
>> ASM is overall an outstanding, world class violinist. I have never found her very effective in pop violin
>> lit, whereas she excels is in things like the Thais Meditation, the Waxman Carmen Fantasy, the Sibelius
>> Concerto.
>>
>> This television appearance was indeed a poor outing for ASM. It seems every time a classical violinist
>> does American TV that feel they have to trot out this well worn Heifetz transcription. In all due respect
>> to Maestro Previn, he got off to a rough start in the accompaniment but had warmed up by the bridge;
>> ASM was never able to regain, or even to really gain, her footing in this performance. Anne-Sophie is
>> a very nice and unpretentious person and I was really sorry that it went this way for both of them.
>>
>>
> I retract my rash statement.
>
> Perhaps you are right. Two things seem rather obvious; the piece was
> rushed, as if it were the minute waltz done in 45 seconds, a symptom of
> being placed just before a break. And she looked harried, uncomfortable
> and unhappy, perhaps tired. Her face showed what looked more like a
> grimace than any sort of passion. A big, though pretty girl, her setting
> was not thought out at all. Too far from the piano, she appeared out of
> scale. As someone stated, a bad showing. And not her fault.
>
> Letterman should be ashamed, not her. He literally threw her out on the
> stage.
>