Anne-Sophie Mutter: East Meets West album review – diverse, bold and brand new

Anne-Sophie Mutter’s enduring commitment to contemporary music is showcased in her bold new series on Alpha Classics. All four works were specifically written for her, with the composers’ diverse heritages lending the album its title.

The artwork for East Meets West. Photograph: Alpha

The programme opens with a six-minute solo by Iranian-Dutch composer Aftab Darvishi. Likoo – the title refers to a folk poetry genre rooted in the desert life of Iran – is a sinuous lament, written before the recent outbreak of war but now unbearably poignant. It’s followed by a nine-minute rollercoaster duo, Gran Cadenza, by Unsuk Chin, a South Korean composer living in Berlin. Mutter is partnered by the excellent Chinese-American violinist Nancy Zhou in a prickly, high-wire duel to the death.

Textures broaden as Mutter is joined by Ye-Eun Choi, Muriel Razavi and Pablo Ferrández for Jörg Widmann’s refractive String Quartet No 6. Entitled Studie über Beethoven, the 21st-century German iconoclast puts the music of his respected predecessor through the wringer to coruscating, frequently uproarious effect.

Finally, Thomas Adès’s Air, for violin and orchestra, is recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer himself. Aptly subtitled Homage to Sibelius, Mutter chases a glacial thread of sound through tranquil orchestral textures that accumulate in density even as they spiral down to rest.

Stream it on Apple Music (above) or on Spotify