Abu Dhabi Festival: Mutter and Muti work in perfect harmony

Anne-Sophie Mutter and Riccardo Muti in a tour de force performance at the Abu Dhabi Festival.

Anne-Sophie Mutter performs all over the world. Eckehard Schulz / AP Photo

The old guard and new blood came together in perfect harmony as part of the Abu Dhabi Festival on Wednesday, March 25.

The violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter returned to the capital to once again grace the Emirates Palace stage, this time backed by the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra, led by the incomparable veteran conductor Riccardo Muti.

While the sold-out audience was thrilled at the spectacle, the best seats in the house arguably belonged to young Italians of the orchestra – all under the age of 30 – as they received a masterclass from two of classical ­music’s greats.

Before the programme's main piece, Beethoven's Violin Concerto, Muti put the orchestra through their paces with the opener of Rossini's William Tell Overture.

Despite Muti’s hope to showcase the orchestra’s technical prowess – which was never in any doubt – it was hard to take your eyes off the 73-year-old conductor. On the podium, he was a dictator in the best possible sense, as he coaxed the finest detail from his young charges.

When the cellos in the overture’s opener weren’t quite vigorous enough for his liking, all it took was a penetrating look at the culprits and it was swiftly sorted. A magisterial twist of his wrist summoned the autumnal fluttering of strings while a gentle raising of his hand heralded the deep slow rumble of the timpani.

In Schubert's agile Symphony No 4, the orchestra truly showed their worth, particularly during the second movement, in which the woodwinds lightened the sombre moods with some elegiac melodies.

The star of the show arrived after the intermission. Clad in black, Mutter was a picture of grace and fierce concentration as she tackled what she deems to be the "crown of the violin repertoire".

The 51-year-old cemented her reputation as being technically peerless, particularly in the Allegro ma non troppo, in which Mutter conjured dizzying spirals of melodies.

With all the acrobatics on display, Muti kept her from overreaching by providing a fluid yet clearly structured outline from the orchestra.

However, he also knew when to sit back and let Mutter soar, as she did in the last movement during which each thematic repetition was blistering and different – it was head-spinning stuff and deserving of the long standing ovation.