Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto / Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1
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Composer: Dmitri ShostakovichComposer: Felix Mendelssohn
Orchestra: Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra
Performer: Hilary Hahn
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2002-11-05
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
- Allegro Molto Appassionato
- Andante
- Allegretto Non Troppo - Allegro Molto Vivace
- Nocturne. Moderato
- Scherzo. Allegro
- Passacaglia. Andante
- Cadenza
- Burlesque. Allegro Con Brio
Music reviews of Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto / Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1
Music Review: Competent technique, but Hahn's sound production is just plain bad
Rating: 2 Stars
I listened to the first movement of the Shostakovich, and found myself, as I have very rarely, feeling disgust for the sound of the solo violin. Suddenly the sound of Hanhn n's playing, which at first was merely thin, as it would be for the rest of the piece, became something that made me push the stop button at once, for it was, I have to say, intolerable. It was the same feeling I had when listening to Tchaikovsky's pathetique being performed on a theremin (the instrument with the thin, shrill, mosquito-like buzz you hear on the Beach Boy's "Good vibrations" and countless "B" horror and sci-fi movies from the 50's), just plain disgusting. As they say in the business, sound production is just plain horrible. Whats worse is that it happens in the easy parts, in the long melodious parts, not in the ones that require the violinist to show off his technical virtuosity. I can almost feel the horsehair in Hanhn n's bow just slipping on the strings, instead of pulling them enough to make them vibrate and produce that full sound that is the trademark of masters like Milstein, Kogan, Oistrakh, and Szigeti. And this weak slipping is also the cause of her thin sound.
Hanhn to me has a passable, if not competent, technique, apparent in the way she deals with the difficult parts of the concerto, but her playing is almost totally lacking in energy and passion, something made obvious by the thin sound of her playing. But no less a violin luminary than Heifetz also had the same problem, though not in the same degree. But Heifetz , I have to say, with apologies for his many admirers, had more serious problems - he made romantic music, like Strauss's violin sonata, sound pathetic in exaggerated sentiment, through excessive vibrato (in this he reminds me of the pesky violinists in certain folksy restaurants). It is to Hanhn's merit that she avoids this.
But the major problem, the thin sound, remains and here Hanhn goes lower than Heifetz . The violin was born of neccessity, as music left the ornate halls of European chateaus for more open, public places, where a more powerful sound was required to have the same effect on the more numerous listeners in the audience. That's why, when it began to spread from Italy, snobbish purists (who had privileged access to royal courts, of course) looked down on it, to the point that a Frenchman of the 18th century wrote a satire in which the violin appeared as the leader of a band of Italian barbarians (consisting of the new violoncello and contrabass) conspiring to take over the exclusive concert halls of Europe (see Weiss and Tarkuskin's "Music in the Western World"). So a thin sounding violin is almost an oxymoron, unless, like many snobbish purists in the present (the kind who behave as if they knew how Bach, Mozart and Beethoven wanted their music performed), one is looking for the intimate experience of virtually digging out the sound of the solo violin using tube amplifiers and other expensive audio equipment. Even then, as I wrote before, a thin sound is almost always the product of a lack of passion and energy in the violinists' part, so all that expense will be for nothing (unless the recording is to blame, but that is another matter).
By the way, why all this partisanship about reviews? It doesn't seem ok to me to vote against a review MERELY because you don't agree with what it says. Don't you all think that it would be better to trash those reviewers who merely express their opinions , not bothering to explain why they don't like (or do like) a product?
I can't finish without saying that I don't agree with these sexy covers. Even if some girl with the looks of Keira Knightley had appeared on it, if her playing had been lousy, I would rather pierce my eardrums than proclaim it is as good as it gets.
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Description of Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto / Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1
All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.Though at first glance these two concertos seem an odd coupling, Hilary Hahn offers convincing reasons for pairing them in her scholarly but rather chatty program notes. For the listener, the most important one is her avowed love and affinity for the music, which speak through every note of her performance. At 22, Hahn has developed from an arresting teenage prodigy into a formidable violinist. Her technique is equal to all challenges and so effortless that one forgets about it. Her tone has the directness and intensity of a laser beam and the unblemished purity of fine-spun crystal. This carries over into her style: clear and straightforward, without fuss, external effects, or exaggeration--there is hardly a slide on the whole record. If her playing is rather cool, it's also noble and emotionally so genuine that she can make a popular warhorse like the Mendelssohn sound fresh and new. She takes few rhythmic liberties, but freely changes tempo for mood and expression: the second theme of the first movement is much slower than the rest. The Shostakovich, too, sounds new and different. A repertory staple of all great Russian violinists, it is usually played with a lush tone and unbridled emotionality. Hahn captures the work's bleak, lamentatious despair, the obsessiveness and sardonic irony, but her playing has the sort of fire that burns ice-blue rather than red-hot. It projects a sense of restraint, of pent-up tension and excitement that finally burst out in the cadenza. It is a riveting performance. The orchestra is very good, but often too loud in the Mendelssohn. --Edith Eisler
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