Anne-Sophie Mutter is very busy these days. Her Festival of 20th-Century Violin Music will take place at Avery Fisher Hall over a series of dates in January; it will feature performances with the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur of works by Lutoslawski, Bernstein, Berg, Sibelius, Rihm, and Penderecki. Also in January, she will perform two Carnegie Hall recitals with pianist Lambert Orkis, playing pieces by Webern, Respighi, Crumb, Bartók, Ravel, Pärt, Shostakovich, and Stravinsky. In February Mutter takes the show on the road, touring the U.S. with works drawn from the Carnegie Hall recitals. March and April will find her performing in Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt, and Stuttgart.

All this comes on the heels of the release of her new recording of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (Deutsche Grammophon 4CD 457 619-2). Recorded live with the Trondheim Soloists at the Tivoli Hall in Copenhagen, the recording was prompted by Mutter’s visit to artist Gotthard Graubner’s studio. "The images I saw made me think I was listening to Vivaldi’s music," explains Mutter. "There is such a close affinity here between light and shade on the part of both the modern painter and the Baroque composer. . . . These pieces contain no hurdle that a good music student couldn’t clear as a teenager. But art involves more than just playing a piece quickly, cleanly, and accurately. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is a unique celebration of life, a veritable riot of color." For more information, visit the Deutsche Grammophon Web site at dgclassics.com or Mutter’s official homesite at anne-sophie-mutter.de/.

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