The enchanting Anne-Sophie Mutter and Maestro Honeck in photographs

Category: Photo coverage, Videos

Perhaps the most anxiously awaited concert of this year’s Festival, and in any event one of its most glowing moments, was the one given by Anne-Sophie Mutter. Together with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck, she performed Brahms’s Violin Concerto. In the second half of the programme the audience was treated to Shostakovich’s polysemic Symphony No. 5 – in a stunning performance by perfectly prepared musicians, at which one could not detect a trace of fatigue, even though they had already given many concerts on their demanding European tour.

The concert was followed by the historic first Prague Spring ‘Postlude’, a post-concert get-together. The guests were Manfred Honeck and Robert Moir (the Vice President of Artistic Planning) of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In the Sweet Shop (Cukrárna) of the Municipal House, the meeting took place in a very friendly spirit till late in the evening. Despite having just performed a demanding concert, Manfred Honeck was bursting with energy and wit.

‘Anne-Sophie Mutter is often called the Queen of the Violin. And at her Saturday concert, on 22 May, she provided evidence that her reputation is well founded. With the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Manfred Honeck, she played Brahms’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77. The first movement oscillated between aggressive tones and calm and both the orchestra and the violinist managed to express these two sides superbly – at times the bite of Anne-Sophie Mutter’s playing almost left me stunned (…). The performance of the second movement was absolutely captivating (…),’ wrote Pavel Šimáček, describing Saturday’s concert for Opera PLUS (with assistance from Google Translator).