One of the world’s leading violinists, Anne-Sophie Mutter returned to London last moth as part of the London Symphony Orchestra’s International Violin Festival at the Royal Festival Hall. Since her debut with the LSO in 1980, the German native Anne-Sophie has performed with the Orchestra on a number of occasions, this time coupling Beethoven’s commanding Violin Concerto with Dvorak’s symphony No 9 in E minor.

Known also for championing contemporary music, she has had several works especially composed for her. Anne-Sophie is one of the few violinists to own her Stradivarius, in fact she has two, the  Emilani of 1703 and the Lord Dunn-Raven Stradivarius of 1710. The latter she has played for the past 26 years and it is believed to have belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte.  A couple of unique facts about Anne-Sophie’s violin performances are her playing without wearing a shoulder rest and her need for traction with the instrument has led her to wearing the same style of John Galliano dress each time she plays.

I left this drawing at the Hall’s Artist’s Entrance  and received it back, signed and dedicated from Germany a couple of weeks later.