Paganini & Spohr: Violin Concertos

 “We hear the [Paganini] Concerto not as the patchwork of showy tricks and memorable tunes it often seems, but as a well crafted, unified work.” --Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2008

“Hilary Hahn plays the score complete and with such effortless command that the listener might be fooled into thinking that it really isn’t all that difficult… in Spohr's A minor Concerto... her exquisite shaping of Spohr's melodies and technical nonchalance pay special dividends. ...this is easily the finest version of this once-popular work to have emerged since Zukerman's long-deleted account of the early 1970s...” --BBC Music Magazine, November 2006 ****

“After nearly 200 years Paganini still poses considerable challenges but Hilary Hahn's superior technique surmounts them easily, the highest and fastest passages accomplished with clarity, excellent intonation and no compromise on tonal quality. The notorious double-harmonics episode in the finale sounds are wonderully secure and beautiful.

 And Hahn's musicianship is of a high order; we hear the Concerto not as the patchwork of showy tricks and memorable tunes it often seems, but as a well crafted, unified work. Other violinists may have produced performances with more edge-ofthe- seat excitement but few have excelled Hahn for finesse. Rather than striving to present the soloist as a heroic figure, she's content, with sympathetic orchestral support, to let us hear the concerto as a beautiful, enthralling piece.

In the Spohr, Hahn plays the recitative sections with splendid, bold expressiveness, and in the brilliant final movement shows a winning combination of strength, delicacy and lyricism.

Her very slow speed in the first aria, though, doesn't work: the music appears to stand still, with a complete change of mood for the contrasting episode. It's an outstanding disc, however, and can only enhance Hahn's reputation.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

MP3 320 · 125 MB