East Meets West: Darvishi, Chin, Widmann, Ades
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Label: Alpha
Cat No: ALPHA1244
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Release Date: 27th March 2026
Contents
Works
Air - Homage to SibeliusGran Cadenza for 2 violins
Likoo for solo violin
String Quartet no.6 'Studie uber Beethoven'
Artists
Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin)Nancy Zhou (violin)
Ye-Eun Choi (violin)
Muriel Razavi (viola)
Pablo Ferrandez (cello)
London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Thomas AdesWorks
Air - Homage to SibeliusGran Cadenza for 2 violins
Likoo for solo violin
String Quartet no.6 'Studie uber Beethoven'
Artists
Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin)Nancy Zhou (violin)
Ye-Eun Choi (violin)
Muriel Razavi (viola)
Pablo Ferrandez (cello)
London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Thomas AdesAbout
Anne-Sophie Mutter is launching her own series of recordings on Alpha Classics, ASM Forte Forward, devoted to the music of our time: it will exclusively feature contemporary works written for her. In 2026 and 2027, this exceptional artist is celebrating her jubilee: 50 years on stage, driven by curiosity, passion and commitment to the future of music. The first opus in this new series, East Meets West, includes works by four composers from diverse origins. The programme moves from solo violin, through duo and chamber repertoire, to concerto with orchestra. It opens with Likoo for solo violin by Iranian-Dutch composer Aftab Darvishi, followed by Gran Cadenza for two violins by Unsuk Chin, a South Korean composer living in Berlin, Jörg Widmann's String Quartet no.6, entitled Studie über Beethoven; and concludes with Thomas Adès's concerto for violin and orchestra, Air - Homage to Sibelius, premiered in 2022 and recorded here with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the British composer himself.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Aftab Darvishi - Likoo, for Violin Solo
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2Unsuk Chin - Gran Cadenza, for Two Violins
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3Jörg Widmann - Studie über Beethoven (String Quartet No.6) I. Maestoso - Largo Subito
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4Jörg Widmann - Studie über Beethoven (String Quartet No.6) II. Poco più tranquillo
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5Jörg Widmann - Studie über Beethoven (String Quartet No.6) III. Poco accelerando
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6Jörg Widmann - Studie über Beethoven (String Quartet No.6) IV. Poco più mosso (ma calmo)
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7Jörg Widmann - Studie über Beethoven (String Quartet No.6) V. Pesante subito - Presto vivace subito
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8Jörg Widmann - Studie über Beethoven (String Quartet No.6) VI. Più pesante
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9Jörg Widmann - Studie über Beethoven (String Quartet No.6) VII. L'istesso tempo
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10Jörg Widmann - Studie über Beethoven (String Quartet No.6) VIII. Più mosso (molto ritmico)
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11Jörg Widmann - Studie über Beethoven (String Quartet No.6) IX. Molto vivace
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12Jörg Widmann - Studie über Beethoven (String Quartet No.6) X. Scherzando vivace (spierlerisch, leicht)
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13Jörg Widmann - Studie über Beethoven (String Quartet No.6) XI. Feroce, agitato subito
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14Thomas Adès - Air-Homage to Sibelius, for Violin and Orchestra I. Adagio - calmo - con moto
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15Thomas Adès - Air-Homage to Sibelius, for Violin and Orchestra II. Esitando... più… quasi a tempo
Europadisc Review
Since bursting onto the classical scene as a teenager in the mid-1970s, Anne-Sophie Mutter has become best known to music lovers for her recordings of the Classic-Romantic repertoire, from the Mozart concertos with which she first made her name (mentored by Herbert von Karajan) to the great works of Beethoven, Brahms and others. Yet in parallel with this mainstream repertoire, she has always championed new music, and a steady stream of works written specifically for her - by figures ranging from André Previn and John Williams to Lutosławski, Dutilleux and Rihm, testifies to her commitment to a wide variety of styles. Now, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of her 1976 Lucerne Festival debut, she is releasing in partnership with Alpha Classics some of the many other works she has commissioned, in recordings often made in the presence of the composers themselves. Her first album in the series is entitled 'East Meets West' - the title of a famous 1967 album by Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar - and it brings together four pieces dating from the last five years.
Proceeding from a solo work, via a violin duet and string quartet, to a concertante piece for violin and orchestra, the album opens with Likoo for solo violin by Iranian-Dutch composer Aftab Darvishi. There are palpable references to the music of Bach in various types of passagework, but this is refracted through the lens of the likoo, a type of (mostly) sad songs from Iran's southeastern Baluchestan province. At times, pitches are 'bent' (as at the work's very opening), and a pervasive mood of lament was intensified at the time of recording by the June 2025 Israeli attacks on Iran; recent events only add to that weight of significance. The combination of eastern and western influences - their different forms of musical 'freedom' - are at their most obvious here, and while the Bachian ticks will provide a route into the music for most listeners, delivered with Mutter's trademark richness and laser-like focus, it is Darvishi's success at combining this with more (to us) exotic sounds that makes this piece so compelling.
The second work is Gran Cadenza for two violins by Berlin-based South Korean composer Unsuk Chin, an album of whose music only recently appeared on Alpha (ALPHA1200). Premiered in October 2021 by Mutter and Ye-Eun Choi, on this recording Mutter's partner is Nancy Zhou. There are no overt East/West references here; instead, the music is an explosive reinvention of the solo cadenza, with the two protagonists at times working together in partnership or dialogue, at others in open conflict, so that over the course of its nine minutes this work creates a whirlwind of sounds and emotions, from the harmonious to the searingly competitive. It vividly illustrates why Unsuk Chin is widely acknowledged as one of today's most acclaimed composers.
For Jörg Widmann's Studie über Beethoven (String Quartet no.6), Mutter is joined by Ye-Eun Choi, violist Muriel Razavi and cellist Pablo Ferrández in a work originally premiered in February 2020 at the beginning of the (Covid-curtailed) Beethoven 250th anniversary year. This is a substantial multi-section work which weaves in and out of identifiable snippets of Beethoven's music with a mixture of wit and inventiveness, sometimes playful, at others combative or pensive: a truly Beethovenian combination! The musical language, too, ranges from the classically tonal to more modernist and even expressionist extremes, and the overall effect is of a mosaic formed from a collection of shards, with Beethoven's music taken apart and pieced together to form fascinating patterns. You'd think that this was a regular high-end quartet rather than a collection of independent soloists, so tight is the ensemble, so unanimous the musical intent.
Finally, Mutter joins forces with the London Symphony Orchestra for Thomas Adès's Air - Homage to Sibelius, with the composer conducting. The piece plays on different meanings of the word 'air', primarily the ether through which music actually sounds. It explores, in particular, the instrument's extreme upper range (Mutter herself says that her little finger deserves a medal), but it’s the glaciality of the sound - it icy timbres as well as a mesmerising, quasi-minimalist slow tread - that are the most obvious references to Sibelius. There are, once again, identifiable snatches, this time of Sibelian origin, but here Adès creates a new totality, more like a lyric scena than a concerto. It deserves to be taken up by other players but - as with the album as a whole (recorded between 2023 and 2025) - it is hard to imagine it being played with more finesse, feeling and sheer technical aplomb than it is here.
In sum, a fascinating album, and a valuable tribute to Mutter's continued commitment to creative partnerships. We look forward to more recordings in this series in the near future!
Reviews
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. ... Finally, [in] Thomas Adès’s Air, for violin and orchestra, ... Mutter chases a glacial thread of sound through tranquil orchestral
textures that accumulate in density even as they spiral down to rest. Clive PagetThe Guardian 27 March 2026
Mutter’s technique and tone prove as lithe and lively as everThe Times March 2026
But for immediate impact nothing beats the six minutes of the Iranian-Dutch composer Aftab Darvishi’s Likoo: a sorrowful and moving solo piece referencing Bach and traditional Iranian songs...The Times March 2026
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