Saturday 18 November 2000 Victoria Concert Hall |
MASTERS
SERIES Hilary Hahn Plays Shostakovich |
| Alexander
BORODIN
(1833-1887) Overture to Prince Igor Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975) Violin Concerto No.1 in A minor, op.77 Jean SIBELIUS (1865-1957) Symphony No.5 in E-flat major, op.82
Hilary HAHN violin |
NOISE RATING INDEX: 3 (If you MUST crinkle plastic for any reason, do it QUICKLY and IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT TRY to do it slowly in a futile attempt to keep quiet - you WILL inevitably fail and create even more noise over a longer period of time).
The Noise Rating Index is a partially-objective measurement of pager and handphone blasts, 9pm and 10pm watch beeps, coughing-during-the-pianissimo-bits, intra-audience conversation and other mind-bogglingly inept noises emitted in the concert hall during actual performance of music. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 5, in increasing annoyance.
by Johann D'Souza, Chia Han-Leon, Benjamin Chee and The Inkpot Sibelius Nutcase
|
Graceful
Shostakovich? |
| I am
a great admirer of Ms Hahn's maturity of playing, grace and overall
musicality. She is definitely someone to watch, regardless of her
style. What is her style? - going by her recordings of the Beethoven
and Barber (and Meyer) concertos, it is one of much tonal beauty and
- that word I write above - grace.
But I had a problem with tonight's performance of the Shostakovich, and although it is ultimately a matter of taste, I felt that this grace may not be the best thing to put in such a dark work. I found Ms Hahn's performance a little reticent, not quite engaging enough. Her skill is unfaultable otherwise, her intonation consistent, her tone production as secure as light must travel in a straight line. She is capable of a range of tone colour, though most is in the brighter palette - an extension into the darker hues would be welcome in this work. Her fingerwork in the Scherzo was slick, better than effortless. The rendition was exciting indeed, evoking that much-needed Shostakovichian sense of structure on the verge of collapse. Her accents are rather soft, though, and does not quite have a powerful kick. However, her sense of sustainment is superb - I have rarely heard the Passacaglia held so well. Time passes very quickly listening to her. Emotionally though, I think Ms Hahn is not yet there, which is not unexpected for a youthful violinist. There is that reticence still, as if she was concentrating on the music as score rather than as spiritual expression. But she remains, as always, infinitely graceful, with very fine touch, meditatively relaxed, not tensed... almost objective - perfect qualities in her encore of Bach's Siciliano from Sonata No.1. This Shostakovich has its own beauty, which, I'm sure in the future, Ms Hahn will imbue with more creative risk, more rubato... and maybe even more viciousness... |
Kicking off Shosta
The
Shosta, by Johann D'Souza
If there was one thing that gave her away as a great performer, it had to be the initial applause from the orchestral members.
Hilary Hahn is definitely no ordinary violinist, but one with a great sense of individuality and musical sense. Barely past her teens, her performance on Friday and Saturday (yes, it was too good not to go twice) showed a maturity the likes of a great violinist. While it is difficult to pinpoint how she will turn out in the coming years, I am sure that she will enjoy a career not unlike Victoria Mullova, Kyung Wha Chung and Anne-Sophie Mutter.
I remember hearing one orchestra member remark that her glissandos were remarkable for such small hands. Her intonation is remarkable beyond belief. Her filigree and bowing was always exact. With such talent I hope that a major foundation gives her the opportunity to use a great violin like a Guarnerius although the tone she produced on her own violin is already great.
From the opening solemn introduction, she displayed the brooding torment needed for this Shostakovich concerto and this held out right through the work. My only reservation is with the slighty too-speedy Scherzo, whiich could have been spared a little bit. Lacking nothing in the area of dexterity, she tore through the cadenza with a sense of passion, panache and ease. I had the opportunity to speak to John Sharpley on her cadenza for the Friday concert, and he did point out to me that the solo is not meant to start off in a brooding fashion which she so elegantly executed. Her well-sculptured phrasing was a joy to listen to and nothing seemed too harsh or over exaggerated.
Shostakovich’s concertos, be it violin or cello, demands more than the theatrics of Paganini or Sarasate, and Hilary Hahn showed that kind of understanding for this work. It’s quite remarkable that she has only just finished touring the Brahms violin concerto in Europe and is just kicking off her tour of the Shostakovich concerto in Singapore, en route to Europe - and yet she looked so seasoned in the work. Having had great teachers the likes of Brodsky, Felix Galimir and Gary Grafmann, I look forward to hearing her in some chamber works.
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A
Whirl of Her Own |
|
"Hi. I'm Hilary." There is a huge crowd of fans - not to mention a television crew from Arts Central - pressing at the autograph table, watching as we introduce ourselves to each other and shake hands before Hilary gets down to the second part of business for the evening. The first, of course, was her performance of the first Shostakovich violin concerto just minutes before.
"Hi," she asks brightly. "What's your name ? Do you play an instrument ?" Perhaps part of the reason why it's taking her longer than usual to "clear" the crowd is her taking the time to talk to each person, and not being shy about doing so. There are more people in the queue than usual, and not just because of her celebrity status. Before she performed the encore - a movement from a Bach sonata - she announced in a well-rehearsed voice that she would be out in the lobby at the intermission "and I would like to meet you all, so please drop by", and sending a ripple of astonishment through the audience. This is the first night and the crowd threatens, in fact, to escalate into a near-riot. The huge table that serves as a writing platform as well as a barrier gets moved back several inches, prompting Hilary to put down her pen and push back out, "If you'll just let me clear some space, otherwise I'll be signing up against the wall." It's also quite clear that there is no way that she will finish this crowd in the period of intermission. She turns to me, "If I can't finish signing for everyone, I'll come back after the concert to continue doing it. I'll be here until everyone's gotten it." As the second warning bell goes, we make the announcement. Naturally, the crowd barely moves, but she gets up anyway and, minded by orchestral staff, jostles her way back to her dressing room. I have my hands full reassuring everyone that she will be back. By the end of the intermission on the first half on the first night, we have sold more than forty copies of her Bach album. There are only nine pieces left. Backstage, behind the stage door with Sibelius's Fifth booming away just inside, she is waiting, listening to the vociferous music-making. I consult with her and a decision is made. We will have to "ration" the remaining nine Bach CDs for the second day's crowd. On the second night, things got slightly worse. She was simply unable to stop signing, not with an intransigent queue that unwilling to budge, even when the Sibelius Fifth started. It was only about twenty minutes later that she could finally extricate herself to get backstage to change out of her gown and into something more casual - if only for the second round of autographs at concert's end. The Slavonic Dance by Dvorak encore at the end of the whole programme buys her a few extra minutes to start signing, for already a crowd - choosing to skip the encore - has formed. The time is about fifteen past ten and we would all be there until nearly eleven, and by the time we leave, it is fifteen past eleven. Two nights together, Hilary spent over two hours meeting fans, signing autographs, taking pictures and shaking hands. Speaking with Steve Hahn, her father and travelling companion, he told me that there have been occasions when there were so many people waiting in the queue that she signed right through the second half, until a fresh batch of crowd came out, and she was unable to change or take a break in-between. "Sometimes, it's like she's in the middle of a whirlwind of activity." "But she wants to do this - meet the people," he says, as we talk about this and things as well: how he and Hilary's mother used to also be on the volunteer group at the Peabody Conservatory (when Hilary was only ten) and the problems they faced as well as volunteers. We compare experiences and find out that volunteers are more alike than not even on opposite ends of the globe. We get around to talking about names. We tell him that Yo-yo Ma translates to "Friendly Horse" in the most simplistic sense. In return, he tells us about Hilary's name - Hilary meaning "happy" and Hahn being German for "male chicken", so Hilary Hahn is quite literally a "happy chicken". |
Hilary
Hahn in person does not look anything like the carefully cultivated,
even severe-looking publicity portraits you see on her CD covers
and magazines. The facial resemblence is there, but not the bubbly
and amicable character who makes it a point to meet the local audiences
wherever she performs. She takes her seat, puts down her own bag
of markers and gets started signing autographs.
Not
Quite Sailing in the Wind
The Sib
5, by
The Inkpot Sibelius Nutcase
I
spoke a little too soon when I said to Johann, before the concert, that
Shui Lan has so far never failed to do well for all the Sibelius pieces
he's elected to play. Tonight's performance of the Fifth
Symphony was less than satisfactory, to say the least.
Essentially, there was a distinct lack of direction, pulse and energy in the performance. All these are key qualities in any good performance of Sibelius' Fifth. Where the music should have been full of strength, movement and vitality, often the SSO seemed under-driven. Where a sense of mystery or serenity should have been present, there was a lack of "softness".
The winds have many important parts in the score in terms of sheer evocation of beauty as well as orchestral colour - but, tonight, the brass were insecure at many key points. The horns, for example, made rather many suspicious sounds, and their chief role as the bringer of the "Swan Hymn" was very much unsatisfactory, marred by a distinct shortage of lyric beauty. Along with their woodwind counterparts, all made many many obvious slips. I actually slapped my face in frustration when one woodwind solo came in late - twice.
Major errors such as these were already evident in the first movement, which took quite a dramatic toll on the orchestra's confidence, and even to some extent the conductor. The only part of the performance which was satisfactory came right at the end, when the trumpets rise in the final call of the Swan Hymn.
The woodwind melody in thirds of the Andante mosso, quasi allegretto (oddly mislabeled "Largamente" in the programme notes) were performed in very poor tone and wet spirits. In fact, the problem of mismatched tone among the winds damaged the performance from beginning to end. This is almost surely due to the fact that tonight, the SSO was "experimenting" with many new musicians among its ranks. And yet, the irony was that they did very well in the encore of the night, Dvorak's Slavonic Dance No.2 - here, the SSO swayed together and in a completely different, musical way. Or even in the Prince Igor Overture - tight and heavy, with sharp responses and impressive brass. This only reaffirms for me that the orchestra as a unit was not ready with the Sib 5. In fact, the SSO here sounded more like it was rehearsing, and in haste, without stopping or slowing to smell the roses.
Shui Lan
made a somewhat uncommon (and unfortunate) choice to pause between the
second and last movements - which breaks the musical atmosphere. Most
performances, at least on record, no longer pause here. The interpretation
as a whole was lacklustre and ordinary. The titan which performed such
a tremendous and unique First Symphony in 1998 
was nowhere to be seen.
Johann D'Souza is taking a break from work, Chia Han-Leon is at work, Benjamin Chee is working everywhere and The Inkpot Sibelius Nutcase is, er...
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