Hearing Gubaidulina's first violin concerto, "Offertorium" (1980), written for Kremer, so impressed Mutter that she almost immediately sought her own commission. "She's such an inventive and pure composer," Mutter said by phone from Munich last week. "Everything is perfect in its proportion, and in the philosophy behind it. There is a balance between high and low frequencies, and between darkness and light. She wrestles on several different levels with her musical conflicts."