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A Gala concert with a good (familiar) programming
and a hot globe-trotting young violinist is a sure sell out. The
crowd came for the three Bs (Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms), and to
everyone's delight the performance did not let down any expectations
at all - a very fitting last concert for the season.
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Sleight of Hahn
Her first performance in Singapore was
a darkly incisive Shostakovich
First Violin Concerto. Hilary Hahn returns, eighteen
months later, with her recently recorded Brahms Concerto.
Benjamin Chee met up with Hillary to catch up on what
happened in-between.
How does it feel to be described (by Time)
as "America's Best Young Classical Musician"?
I was quite honoured, flattered really, to be described by
such a prominent magazine. But it's also not a label I picked
for myself: it's what someone else - one person - decided
to describe me. And also (we should) keep in mind that there
were three qualifiers to it: American, Young
and Classical, so it really narrows it down to saying
not all that much. There are really a lot of other good musicians
out there, from America and elsewhere.
What was your initial reaction?
It was quite strange, really. I was in the middle of an intensive
French school then, where you wasn't supposed to see or read
anything English. I became so starved of English that one
weekend, I snuck into a corner shop and saw the magazine.
I bought three copies for myself - for future reference.
How did you find out about it?
Some of my other French classmates saw the article in Time
first. My picture was inside and they thought they recognized
me. I didn't sign up for the French as a musician or anything,
just as an ordinary student. So they were going, Is that
her? It can't be her, no way! When they asked me, I told
them, yes, that's me and then I went out and got my
own copies.
Tell us more about the new Brahms-Stravinsky
recording.
Like the previous album, there is a connection between the
two works.
Even if it is not immediately apparent?
That's right. I try to see what might work if people heard
the two works together, like in a concert programme, although
on recording it's of course two concerti. If you listen to
Brahms immediately before Stravinsky, you will experience
the Stravinsky differently. Something in one work changes
the way you listen to the other, and I like to try to bring
that out.
But if people listen to one work, or even
one track at a time...
You can also do that, of course. (laughs) But both works also
have a commonality. For example, both works were influenced
by Bach - well which classical work isn't? - and there is
a passage in the Stravinsky where the soloist and the concertmaster
are playing together. That passage was influenced by the Bach
Double Violin Concerto.
What's on your next recording project?
In February and April, I just recorded a new pair of works,
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and Shostakovich.
The First or Second?
I haven't played the Shostakovich Second, so it has
to be the First. (laughs)
That's the one you played on your last
visit.
That's right, you still remember! (laughs)I am in the middle
of editing the music right now, so they should be ready and
out in the fall. Later this year, I'll be recording the complete
Bach Violin Concerti, coupled with the Elgar. I'm still
doing the "B's", and starting on the "M's" and "S's", but
I also hope to break out into the other letters. (laughs)
How about your chamber music?
I still play a lot of chamber music, although I don't usually
mix my concerto season with chamber music. I play in cities
where I have friends, sometimes when I'm back home in Philadelphia,
because it's easier to get together to read through the music.
We also do the festivals as well, like Marlboro - well that's
nearly eight weeks of chamber music!
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Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.3 gathered a warm
cohesive blend of orchestral playing from the SSO under Shui Lan,
who came on with neither score nor baton. His active approach produced
a 'bouncing' lightness of the predominant theme, delightful musical
phrasing that expressed enthusiastic exuberance. Parts with sectional
division among the strings were very well blended with the rest
of the orchestra, liking it or not depends on your taste. This might
have been exaggerated by a overtly spacious acoustics, and it probably
robbed the audience behind me the satisfaction of hearing the performance
clearly. There was the rare chance in catching a rare glimpse of
the harpsichord in action, playing an improvisation bridging the
outer movements of the concerto. The last movement goes at a vivacious
tempo, the rapid exchanges of passages across the string sections
splashing colours joyfully all over the soundscape.
The following first symphony by Beethoven continue
to ride on the momentum. There is an impetuousness in Shui Lan's
hands that makes Beethoven particularly slick, dangerous even. Sharp
precision of notes and a full moulding of every phrase, holding
notes to their full values and perhaps even a bit more; all these
were demanded from the orchestra. It was scarcely possible for any
person new to the symphony, like myself, to hear classical stylistic
influences here, anything other than Beethoven at his maturity.
Take for example, the third movement Minuet, which
would have fitted most any late symphony - the waves of jolting
staccato passages bristled with tense energy that seemed most unlike
the courtly dance one would expect. The concluding movement is similarly
a torrent of notes after the sly opening, gushing through the development,
recapitulation and coda all without breaking stride. It was a happy
thing that here the acoustics was better made use of, the orchestral
sound filling out the hall and capable of even producing a booming
effect at times.
The night really began when violinist Hilary Hahn
stepped onstage after the interval for the performance of Brahms's
Violin Concerto. Striding in confidantly in a sleek black dress,
she had a warm reception from the audience which was happy to finally
see her appearance. Shui Lan began the concerto splendidly, taking
his time and not rushing in approaching the main orchestral themes
of the concerto. But from the moment Ms Hahn struck that first angry
chord, the orchestra was relegated to the background, either deliberately
done to put her in the limelight, or maybe I was just too struck
by her personality.
On her last visit here to play the first Shostakovich
concerto, I was not as awestruck as I was this night. The same confidence
and patience in exploring the music, especially prominent in her
cadenzas, was there, but it might have been a lapse in my concentration,
that didn't impress her to my memory then. But Brahms, that majestic
concerto for the violin, is the piece to judge a violinist's merit
on, being so often performed. And Hilary proved that she is one
of the highest calibre. She does the concerto justice by expressing
the music's power through herself; individual quirks of interpretations
totally unobstrusive unlike most other performers who seeks to highlight
their personal style with them - recalling the old school stylists
like the beloved Arthur Grumiaux as my companion remarked. The music
goes at a very comfortable tempo, supremely lyrical and majestic
at its climaxes, and powerfully projected with no hint of weakness
at all. Shui Lan must be commended in his supportive role too, leading
intelligently and avoiding the mistake of making piecemeals out
of the sometimes problematic episodes within the first movement.
The cadenza was very well paced as I mentioned,
very humane to me in the way that the phrasing naturally breathes
with an inner rhythm, bearing no undue aggression, again something
extraordinary that can hardly be heard in another violinist's hands.
That is very important, for the candenza has to go this way to transit
smoothly into that heavenly stretch of long drawn high notes of
the recapitulation immediately after. It has to be an innate sense
of musicality that can succeed in drawing so close to the ultimate
expressive potential of this difficult concerto, not to mention
the possession of a powerful technique to be able to mask the virtuosity
of the concerto with natural ease.
Tumultous applause followed after her amazing account
of Brahms, from both the audience and the discerning orchestra which
cannot help but admire the rare musical talent. There is no way
any audience would let her off without an encore, and she obliged
with a scintillating display of bowing technique with Bach's Preludio
from the third Partita. Prior to the encore, she made her by now
famous speech expressing her desire to see the audience after the
concert, but then the crowd needed no excuse to do so, resulting
in an queue that stretched endlessly and lasted about an hour. For
a wonderful last concert of the season, the audience have good reasons
to enjoy the moment thoroughly.
ONG
YONG HUI went back to revisit Brahms after a long break
right after this concert. It sure sounded different.
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