Previn and Mutter tango

Synopsis

On today’s date in the year 2001, during the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, the German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter premiered a new chamber work for violin and piano entitled “Tango, Song and Dance.” She had commissioned the work from Andre Previn several years earlier, but its premiere was delayed as Mutter embarked on a project to perform and record all Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas.

“After doing all those stern recitals,” said Mutter, “I wanted to play pieces which reflected the basis of musical history, the folksongs and dances which has inspired composers through so many centuries. Tango, Song and Dance is both modern and old-fashioned, and it touches the heart, especially the slow movement, which is really a ‘Song Without Words.’”

And that wasn’t the only thing to touch her heart… it was around this time that Previn and Mutter became husband and wife. For his part, Andre offered these comments on composing a piece for Anne-Sophie: “I had written a violin sonata before I did Tango, Song and Dance, and I gave it to Anne-Sophie, who came back with the request that I make it much more difficult—otherwise she didn’t want to touch it. I have one piece of advice to composers for the violin—make sure Anne-Sophie premieres your piece. Then you’re home and dry, and everything works!”

Other composers seem to agree, and Krzysztof Penderecki, Witold Lutoslawski, Henri Dutilleux, and Wolfgang Rihm have all dedicated violin works to her.

Music Played in Today's Program

André Previn (b. 1929) Tango, Song and Dance Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin; André Previn, piano DG 471 500

On This Day

Births

• 1887 - Nicaraguan composer Luis Delgadillio, in Managua;

• 1915 - British composer Humphrey Searle, in Oxford;

Deaths

• 1958 - British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, age 85, in London;

Premieres

• 1815 - Weber: Clarinet Quintet in Bb, Op. 34, in Munich, featuring clarinetist Heinrich Bärmann;

• 1846 - Mendelssohn: oratorio "Elijah," at Birmingham Festival in England, with composer conducting;

• 1954 - Alan Rawsthorne: "Practical Cats" (after T.S. Eliot), for speaker and orchestra, at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland

• 1956 - Martinu: "Frescoes of Piero della Francesca," for orchestra, at the Salzburg Festival in Austria

• 1957 - Panufnik: "Rhapsody" for orchestra, in London

• 2001 - André Previn: "Tango, Song and Dance," at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and pianist Lambert Orkis.

Others

• 1717 - French flutist and composer Jacques-Martin Hotteterre is appointed royal flutist (“flutte de la chamber de Roy”) at a salary of 6000 livres