Finney Chapel was packed the Friday before break with classical music fans eagerly awaiting one of the most prestigious performers to visit Oberlin this year. Some expected Hilary Hahn to live up to her reputation as “America’s best” young classical musician (according to Time Magazine), some expected Hahn to be nothing more than a hot shot technicion straight out of Curtis with no real artistic power in her playing. Many were intrigued by her success, her contract with Sony, her publicity, and of course the posters that have been plastered all over campus for weeks. Hahn is commonplace in conversations between classical music fans, but few Oberlin residents seemed to have heard her play. It was as though people came out of the woodwork for this recital. Finney was truly filled to capacity.
Grammy nominee, Hahn was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music in 1990 at the age of 10. Soon afterwards she began playing with orchestras such as the Baltimore Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Pittsburgh Symphony. From ages 10 to 17 she studied at Curtis with the legendary Jascha Brodsky — the last surviving student of the great Belgian violinist Eugene Ysaye — working closely with him until his death at the age of 89. She has recorded five albums for Sony Classical and will be continuing to record with Deutche Grammophon. With them, she will soon be releasing a collection of Bach Concerti. For her 2002-3 season, she has played recitals all over the world (including a Carnegie Hall recital debut), engaged in a four-week tour of Europe with the San Francisco Symphony and performed Edgar Meyer’s Violin Concerto (written for her) all over the United States. She has also participated both in the Marlboro Music Festival and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Accompanist Natalie Zhu, with whom Hahn has worked more closely than any other pianist, has a similarly impressive resume. They became friends at Curtis and have since shared an artistic collaboration that has been very successful. Zhu participated in the Marlboro and Tanglewood summer festivals and since 1998, has been affiliated with Astral Artistic Services, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit agency assisting the country’s most promising emerging classical musicians.
Hilary Hahn and Natalie Zhu started the concert with a fiery, demanding piece (Sonata No. 1) by the enigmatic composer from the first half of the 20th century, Ernest Bloch. Their reading was fairly straightforward rhythmically, and very clear. Hahn’s violin sound was so astounding, so absolutely perfect that it left much of the audience breathless. Unlike many young modern violinists, Hahn’s tone was aggressive perhaps, but never ugly. And her strong, full sound is perfectly uniform from the highest note on the E-string to the open G-string. Every note was incredibly articulate. Not a single note was thrown away or gobbled up by thick textures or loud piano parts. Everything shone through with a crystal clear resonance that is extremely rare.
Interestingly the duo followed the Bloch Sonata with a relatively tame Schubert Sonata in A major, D. 574. The Schubert would likely come first in a more traditional program. However, the juxtaposition worked well and showcased Hahn’s ability to morph her sound for a softer classical style. All of the clarity in her playing remained, minus the edgy sound that permeated the Bloch Sonata.
There seemed to be a lot of discussion between students in the Conservatory about how Hahn was going to present her Bach. How a performer chooses to play Bach can be a defining feature in his or her playing. It can reflect or contrast a general stylistic aesthetic that a performer has chosen, whether it be a historical, modern or classic “golden-age-of-violin-playing” approach. There are so many legitimate ways to play the six sonatas and partitas for solo violin that presenting an intriguing, maybe even surprising, yet convincing Bach is one of the most important steps to solidifying one’s reputation as an experienced artist and not just another prodigy.
While some violinists present solo Bach in a sort of introspective, lonesome manner, Hahn’s E Major Partita was exuberant and celebratory. The uplifting nature of the playing certainly matched the mood of the dance suite, however her sound was more than a response to a light, major key. Hahn’s tone was glorious and wide, almost orchestral. Hahn paid little attention to Bach’s titles of the movements that categorize the pieces as various dance-steps, but rather played with a rhythmic pulse that subdivided each bar into almost individual notes. However, this gave the entire piece a continuity that suggested the ever-unfolding harmonic quality of many baroque pieces. Of course the playing was also technically flawless and every note was clear and balanced. The audience gave the performance a well-deserved standing ovation.
The last piece on the program was the Debussy’s jazz-influenced violin sonata. Hahn sounded a little tired for the first two movements and with a grueling program like this one it’s understandable. Her interpretation was once again relatively standard. Her fairly ridged tempi constricted the expressive possibilities of the first movement. However her sheer clarity and energy in the last movement made up for any shortcomings in the first two. Her vibrato was also faster for this piece.
The duo returned for two encores, a Siciliano by Bach and a short piece by Stravinsky. For both pieces Hahn really played nicely with a warm sound and tenderness that made her sound like one of the greats. She has great things in store. Keep an eye on this girl. Once she finds a clearer artistic voice her concerts will be even more magical. But she is on the right track and her performances are already inspirational.