Various Composers - Eclipse (Hilary Hahn)

Information

• Antonín Dvořák - Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op. 53
• Alberto Ginastera - Violin Concerto, Op. 30
• Pablo de Sarasate - Carmen Fantasy, Op. 25

Hilary Hahn, violin

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor

Date: 2022

Label: Deutsche Grammophon

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Review

This is the first album Hilary Hahn has recorded since the pandemic struck, and there appears to have been a striking change in her playing. Whereas before one was above all conscious of her captivating reproduction of the notes themselves, now her focus appears to have shifted to what lies behind the notes. Phrases are now more subtly lingered over, as though on occasion she can hardly bear to let them go. More space is allowed for the music to breathe naturally, and when the notes start flying, there is a greater sense of exultation in the excitement generated.

The Dvořák Concerto is notoriously tricky to bring off convincingly, yet by sustaining an extraordinary level of intensity throughout (much as Isaac Stern did in his classic CBS/Sony account with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy), Hahn makes you believe in every note. Hahn’s range of articulation also feels more strikingly varied. In Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy, whilst ensuring the more sumptuous moments are voiced with a luxurious cantabile legato, she shapes each number with a powerful sense of the music’s dance origins – one can readily sense feet stamping, hands clapping and skirts swirling.

Yet it is the Ginastera Concerto that is the real star item here. Rarely heard since its 1963 premiere, its stunning virtuoso demands – from the outset, the soloist is thrown in at the deep end with a dazzling, extended solo cadenza – are certainly not for the faint-hearted. Hahn hurls herself into the fray with scintillating abandon, matched by stunningly articulate and rhythmically beguiling playing from the Frankfurt Radio Symphony under Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

— Julian Haylock

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Antonín Dvořák (September 8, 1841 – May 1, 1904) was a Czech composer. He was the second Czech composer to achieve worldwide recognition, after Bedřich Smetana. Following Smetana's nationalist example, many of Dvořák's works show the influence of Czech folk music, such as his  two sets of Slavonic Dances, the Symphonic Variations, and the overwhelming majority of his songs. Dvořák wrote in a variety of forms: nine symphonies, ten operas, three concertos, several symphonic poems, serenades for string orchestra and wind ensemble, more than 40 works of chamber music, and piano music.

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Alberto Ginastera (April 11, 1916 – June 25, 1983) was a Argentine composer. Born in Buenos Aires, he studied at top Argentine conservatories and later with Aaron Copland in the US. Though a traditionalist at heart, Ginastera's music incorporated modern techniques like microtones, serialism, and aleatory elements. He composed a wide range of highly regarded works across different genres—ballet, opera, orchestral, chamber, and solo pieces. These works exemplify Ginastera's range—from nationalist and folkloric styles to intense modernism—and cement his status as a leading Latin American composer of the 20th century.

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Pablo de Sarasate (March 10, 1844 – September 20, 1908) was a celebrated Spanish violin virtuoso and composer. He began his violin studies at age five, gave his first performance at age eight, and later studied at the Paris Conservatory. From 1859, he started to gain international fame through his concert tours. Admired for his effortless playing, Sarasate inspired many composers, including Saint-Saëns, Bruch, Lalo, and Dvořák, to write works for him. He also composed numerous virtuoso pieces for violin, with Zigeunerweisen (1878), a gypsy-style fantasy for violin and orchestra, being his most popular work.

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Hilary Hahn (born November 27, 1979) is an American violinist. She studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Jascha Brodsky, Jaime Laredo, Felix Galimir and Gary Graffman. A three-time Grammy Award winner, she has performed throughout the world as a soloist with leading orchestras and conductors, and as a recitalist. Hahn is an avid supporter of contemporary classical music, and several composers have written works for her, including Edgar Meyer, Jennifer Higdon, Antón García Abril, Einojuhani Rautavaara, and Lera Auerbach. Her violin is an 1864 copy of Paganini's Cannone made by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume.

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