Hommage à Penderecki

Anne-Sophie Mutter offers a wonderfully varied musical tribute to her friend, composer/conductor Krzysztof Penderecki. The Second Violin Concerto of 1995 takes center stage among some smaller scale works, and dominates the program with its range and powerfully evoked mood of lament. Mutter plays gloriously and the London Symphony Orchestra, under the composer, respond with terrific intensity. The Second Violin Sonata (2000), performed by its creators, is also superb, with Mutter and Lambert Orkis playing as one. The two works for solo violin and violin with double bass are done with eloquence and palpable affection.

With one exception, the recordings on the double-album Hommage à Penderecki are all reissues (the new one is the quite haunting Violin Sonata No. 2 of 1999 at the end of disc one).