Violin virtuoso Anne-Sophie Mutter is unapologetic about her ideas on art and life

Master violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, who will be backed by Riccardo Muri and the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra at the Abu Dhabi festival, says artists are defined not by popularity but by what they contribute to society.

The German violinist Anne Sophie-Mutter says she seeks out challenging works as a way to keep her mind sharp and avoid being judgemental. Harald Hoffmann / Deutsch Grammophon

Anne-Sophie Mutter is taking the high road. The violin virtuoso is unapologetic in her explanation of what she deems a fruitful artistic existence.

It should be more than simply sold-out performances and critical acclaim, the 51-year-old German says. It is about the ability to contribute to the world with your talent, or, as she puts it, to “touch another life”.

“I am high-minded about it,” she says. “For me, it comes down to what you choose to do with your life and how you can be useful to others. As musicians, we can be ambassadors for goodwill and pass learning to the next generation. I find it is a more meaningful way to live if you can touch another life.”

These elements will be in evidence during Mutter’s appearance at the Abu Dhabi Festival on Wednesday, March 25.

Not only will she perform Beet­hoven's heart-rending Violin Concerto, but she will also be backed by the next batch of future virtuosos from the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra, led by master conductor Riccardo Muti.

Though the concert marks her Abu Dhabi Festival debut, Mutter is no stranger to the capital, having performed here as part of Abu Dhabi Classics in 2010.

Even then, she recalls, the city was buzzing with the excitement of being a burgeoning regional arts hub.

Mutter says the cultural atmosphere reminded her of what post-Second World War Japan would have been like, or modern-day Taiwan, where classical music is viewed as “the hip new thing”.

“It was all so very exciting,” she says. “You felt you were part of this growing world for this kind of culture in Abu Dhabi – and that was just wonderful, because we all need to share our own cultural roots.”

Born in the town of Rheinfelden in what was then West Germany, near the border with Switzerland, Mutter’s prodigious talent was first spotted before the age of 10.

She was taken out of school to focus on studying the violin under a range of teachers, including Erna Honigberger and Aida Stucki, who both studied under the famed Hungarian teacher Carl Flesch. Mutter also spent a part of her youth at Switzerland’s Winterthur Conservatory.

All the effort paid off when, at the age of 13, Mutter was invited to play with the Berlin Philharmonic. A year later, she made her debut public performance at the Salzburg Festival with the English Chamber Orchestra.

By the age of 15 she had released the first of more than 40 recordings: a performance of Mozart’s third and fifth violin concertos with the Berlin Philharmonic, led by Herbert von Karajan.

But despite such an early rise to fame, Mutter doesn’t lament a lost childhood.

“Well, everybody’s normality is different,” she says. “For me, this life was totally normal because I wanted to be a violinist since I was 6. So beginning to concertise as a teenager felt great for me and I enjoyed doing it.”

Nevertheless, Mutter credits her children, Arabella and Richard, with her late husband Detlef Wunderlich, for giving her a second chance to experience a part of life she missed the first time around.

“When you have children, you do actually relive your childhood,” she says. “It didn’t make me think that I sacrificed mine, but I did enjoy their childhood particularly deeply because we did things together that I didn’t perhaps do when I was their age.”

As well reaching master status by the age of 50, there are other positives to starting out at such a young age, Mutter says, the biggest of which was developing the curiosity so central to her work.

This quest “to understand”, she says, has become her life’s motto.

It also explains why she wilfully seeks out the chance to perform challenging works. Examples of this include her 2010 performance of Sofia Gubaidulina's In Tempus Praesens with the New York Philharmonic and her 2013 Carnegie Hall presentation of Penderecki's La Follia, an experience she reportedly described as driving her "to the edge of my marbles".

But there is a method to the madness, she says.

“I use these pieces as an excuse to overcome my own stupidity and limitations and do them as an exercise, even if I don’t like it,” she says. “I find that eventually I do understand them and grow to appreciate them.

“I use that as a rule for my life. We are normally very hostile at first, but once we get over that first hurdle, we grow to like these challenges because you invest so much in them. They are necessary to overcoming being judgemental and, in some cases, to make you honest enough to say: ‘I tried, but this just doesn’t work for me.’ ”

It is in that spirit that Mutter chose to present Beethoven's Violin Concerto in Abu Dhabi.

“It is rightfully considered to be a crown of the violin repertoire,” she says. “It really has a wonderful philosophical message – despite Beethoven becoming deaf at a young age, he managed to not only overcome any bitterness but instead become a lover of his fellow man. It’s a wonderful lesson, I feel.

“Life is full of shadows, but the challenge is stepping out of the shadows and turning that pain into something useful for you and the people around you.”

• Beethoven Violin Concerto: Riccardo Muti conducts Anne-Sophie Mutter & the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra is at Emirates Palace on Wednesday, March 25, at 8pm. Tickets cost Dh125 and are available from www.timeouttickets.com