Ludwig van Beethoven; Leonard Bernstein - Violin Concerto; Serenade (Hilary Hahn)

Information

Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven; Leonard Bernstein

• Beethoven - Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61
• Bernstein - Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion (after Plato's "Symposium")

Hilary Hahn, violin

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

David Zinman, conductor

Date: 1999

Label: Sony

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Review

Having just suffered Joshua Bell's ghastly performance of the Beethoven at the 2002 Proms I have turned to this elegant and exquisite performance recorded in 1999.

It must be emphasised that a poor performance can damage a work even if played by a star. Bell's performance was riddled with strange tempi, an awful first movement cadenza which was stylistically opposed to Beethoven and instead of taking the usual 42 minutes his performance was 12% overlong. The finale stopped and started and, as one critic described, was like torn washing hanging on a sagging line.

Hahn 's performance has none of these faults and it is the best recording I have heard for a very long time.

Firstly, because it is pure Beethoven. The performers give us what is written and as in Hahn's Bach recital you can follow the printed music since it is faithfully realised.

Secondly, there is no excess, no empty gesture, no playing to the gallery, no showmanship, no eccentricities just glorious Beethoven.

Zinman starts the proceedings with a wonderful controlled orchestral opening. When the soloist enters it is not in an exaggerated blaze of pomp ( Look at me, I'm the soloist! ... not a bit of it). It is so natural. The intonation is perfect, the variety of colour simply spellbinding and every detail is there as Beethoven indicated.

Recently I have been told that no performers still religiously adhere to the score and that all take some byways or advantages. Rubbish! You will find none here!

The legato playing from soloist and orchestra is amazingly good. The climaxes are very well done flowing naturally from the music. The balance and the recorded sound is excellent.

What I also admire is the wonderful way that the main theme of the opening movement is captured in all its beauty with what I have always considered a hint of sadness. One does not usually refer to Beethoven's music as moving, but this is. The quiet episode eleven minutes in is so beautiful that only a hard hearted individual would fail to respond to its ethereal beauty. The accompaniment in the orchestra is truly superb.

The soloist writes, "The Beethoven is, for me, one of the supreme compositions written for any instrument, and its seamless combination of high lyricism and dramatic depth has appealed to me since the first time I heard it."

I have often thought the work to be autobiographical. The opening drum beats are heart-beats. It is Beethoven's heart and despite all the criticisms of him he had a good heart. The range of emotions in this perfect work are varied and the joyous conclusion seems so at odds with Beethoven's tragic life.

Yet Hahn does not pile on any emotion. It just flows. Its simple utterance is all the more touching. It is when the Joshua Bells' of this world want to over-dramatise it and stretch it out that the music loses its power.

The work was not well received at its first performances. Critics said it had a continuity problem. In other words, it did not flow. Yes I have heard performances like that but this is not one of them.

In my days as a school teacher I found that children who knew nothing about real music (a recent report states that 65% of children cannot name one classical composer) loved this piece which surprised me. But then in 1844 the 12 year old Joseph Joachim played it in London under the baton of Mendelssohn. He played it hundreds of times and supplied cadenzas. In this recording Hahn plays the choice cadenza of Fritz Kreisler.

I have often complained about music where nothing happens and I could name several pieces here. I won't, but the famous quote about the novels of Jane Austen comes to mind, "They move as fast as a fly in a glue bottle."

The larghetto is a type of soliloquy. Nothing much happens. Its construction is so simple yet the music is never banal. It is introspective. It is Beethoven into personal self assessment but how lovely this movement is played. It soars, it sighs and it is almost heavenly.

The Rondo is in high spirits and Hahn keeps it moving. Mr Bell take note! It is full of wit and thoroughly satisfying.

I liked Leonard Bernstein as a man although I suffered from passive smoking because of him. He was loquacious and the great communicator. This serenade is another self portrait (I think) and is an entertainment or a divertimento. At that time, (early 1950s) Bernstein was also undergoing a self assessment and reading Plato. He did not know whether he wanted to be a conductor, a composer or a writer of musicals. Fortunately he stuck to all three and while people may applaud West Wide Story as his musical masterpiece I rate On the Town as his finest.

Lenny should have called this work Symposium after Plato. The philosophers appear as the 'characters' in the piece. Phaedrus praises Eros the god of love, Aristophanes is the story teller, Eryximachus talks about the science of love (has everything got to be understood scientifically?), Agathon tells of love's power and Socrates visits Diotima being interested in her speech on love. What follows is a Greek orgy or a New York dinner party with elements of jazz and seedy music.

The music is hugely enjoyable being very entertaining and very well written. The use of bells in the exhilarating first movement is splendid. It is beautifully played.

If I must make a minor criticism it is that it is a hybrid work. But it does show us something of the genius of Lenny who, in my view, was a greater composer than Copland, Harris, Gershwin and many other Americans.

But this is the best Beethoven Violin Concerto recording. Of that I cannot be gainsaid.

— David Wright

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Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized 17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. Beethoven is acknowledged as a giant of classical music, and his influence on subsequent generations was profound. His best-known compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 piano concertos, 1 violin concerto, 32 piano sonatas and 16 string quartets. Many of his most admired works come from the last decade of his life, when he was almost completely deaf.

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Leonard Bernstein (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the US to receive worldwide acclaim. His fame derived from his tenure as the music director of the New York Philharmonic, his concerts with most of the world's leading orchestras, and his composition. As a composer he wrote in many styles encompassing symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music and piano pieces. He also gave numerous television lectures on classical music.

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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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