Anyone would assume from the title Tango Song and Dance that this album contains performances of
Piazzolla and friends, representing an effort on the part of
Anne-Sophie Mutter to cash in on the recent tango craze. Actually, the only tango-related piece here, the title composition by
Mutter's husband
André Previn, was written in 1997 before that trend really got started in classical music. Instead, Tango Song and Dance offers a collection of dance-inflected pieces that diverges from
Mutter's usual serious fare but benefits equally from her commanding musical personality. These performances are great fun and, for the most part, will take you back to the days of the star virtuoso.
Previn joins
Mutter on piano for his own work, and their complementarity -- he is suave, she intense -- is delightful. The work sounds not like
Piazzolla but like
Ravel composing a tango; its final movement is in a 7/8 time that cleverly trips up the tango feel. Some reviewers have reproached the liberties
Mutter takes with the
Joseph Joachim transcriptions of three
Brahms Hungarian Dances, but it's hard to imagine that
Joachim, in
Brahms' own time, would have done any less. Only in a group of selections from
Gershwin's Porgy and Bess does
Mutter seem out of her element; she executes the
Jascha Heifetz arrangements flawlessly, but despite former jazzman
Previn's presence, it ain't got that swing.
Mutter's usual sideman
Lambert Orkis returns to the keyboard for three
Fritz Kreisler encores, however (
Previn plays only on the
Gershwin and his own piece), and
Mutter takes command once again with swooping, sentiment-drenched thrills. Fauré's Violin Sonata No. 1, Op. 13, a tuneful piece with a whiff of the music hall, makes an unexpected but satisfying conclusion. In all, a wonderful outing for a great artist who deserved to lighten up.