Carnegie Hall: Mutter Virtuosi Review

Ah!! I just had to express my happiness from going to Carnegie Hall. It was my first time and I really enjoyed it. It was really beautiful, regal, and as big as I was expecting. The structure of the hall looked like that of the opera house, which makes sense. The music really filled the entire room, besides the harpsichord. But I really enjoyed how each instrument was really heard and none, besides the harpsichord, was really overpowered by the others. The musicians really put on a performance because for some of the performance, I remember specifically in the season Winter, their entire bodies were moving, not just their arms. It was as if their entire bodies were involved in the music they were making, and this was really enjoyable to watch. I didn’t imagine performing to be such a physically demanding act, especially since most of the musicians were standing for the whole time. But I think Jeanette was the one who brought up the question in her review of Carnegie Hall: who is the real artist Anne Sophie Mutter or Vivaldi? I have heard the Four Seasons many times, and by different musicians and artists too. I knew going into Carnegie Hall that I was going to enjoy the performance because I love the Four Seasons. But did I like it because of Anne Sophie Mutter and her ensemble of students, or because Vivaldi composed the original music?

For some reason, I thought it was ironic that Anne Sophie Mutter was in the center of the performance in this beautiful bright yellow dress and her students were behind her dressed in black. For some reason, it was as if this was done to make her the showcase of the performance, but I would have appreciated it more if her students were. I felt like they were meant to act as her accents and I would have really liked the personalities of her students to come out a bit, rather than the performance be focused around Anne Sophie Mutter. But I do understand that she is the ringleader of the act and that she is recognized as one of the world’s best violinists. She is a Grammy Award Winner and I see people paying for their tickets to see her, not necessarily her students. I think this is why she kept walking off stage and then back on several times, which I did not understand the reason for until we discussed the trip in class.

If you read my review of the opera, then you know that I do not like to be seated in a closed space and not have much room to move. This was really the only thing that I did not like about Carnegie Hall. The seats were so much closer together and there was less legroom than at the opera. As soon as I sat down, I was uncomfortable and knew that I was going to have to deal with it. I really tried not to let this ruin my experience, because it did at the opera, and I’m sorry if making a big deal out of nothing, but small, confining spaces are my pet-peeve, and I honestly am terrified of them. But this was the only thing that threatened my experience at Carnegie Hall.