Brahms & Stravinsky.  Violin Concertos.  Hilary Hahn, Violin; Academy of St
Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner.  Sony SK 89649.

Stravinsky's Violin Concerto waited seventy years for this performance.
The work has been more successful as accompaniment to a Balanchine ballet
than as a concert piece and Hahn hopes to see it better established in the
standard repertoire.  She is likely to help that along.  Having first came
to it in the course of score-reading when she found herself musically on
her own at age 17, after the death of her teacher, Brodsky, and, much taken
with its "combination of jaunty brilliance and pensive lyricism...quirky
rhythms [and] many references to Bach," she played it with seven orchestras
prior to this recording, years later.  That being the case, I am inclined
to think that Hahn's views of this work are dominant in the performance,
as Stravinsky's own view of the matter is dominant in the recording he did
with Isaac Stern.  The present performance is quite different from that, in
exciting ways.

One particularly interesting thing about this performance is that, as she
implies in her notes, she plays the opening Toccata much faster than any
recorded performance and closer to the tempo indicated in the score than
Stravinsky does in his own recorded performance with Stern.  Hahn/Marriner
do it in 4:51 and Stern/Stravinsky take 5:35.  The effect is that Hahn's
performance scampers and swaggers, while Stravinsky's, although it does
strut, has more of a metronomic, plodding pace to it that reminds me of
nothing so much of the way Klemperer took the Scherzo in Beethoven's Ninth
Symphony.  Interesting, even canonic, in Stravinsky's case, but somehow not
ideal.  I say this in spite of the fact that I mostly forego the search for
ideal performances in favor of appreciating what is good and distinctive
about real ones.

The middle movements, Arias 1 and 2, are more spiky in the Stern/Stravinsky
and more lyrical, even soaring, with gentle strength, in Hahn/Marriner.
The second Aria is nearly a full minute longer in the latter.  (6:07
compared with 5:10.) The other two movements are of equivalent length in
the two performances, but the approach and effect is different:  Hahn's
Capriccio is lively and youthful; Stravinsky's is more sassy, but at the
end of the movement, as at the beginning of the concerto, Stravinsky's
tempo makes the rhythm sound four-square.  Marriner's rhythms toward the
end are slashing, reminiscent perhaps of the younger Stravinsky.

For a long time I accepted the notion that there is a chasm between early
Stravinsky and the neo-classical Stravinsky.  Actually, his characteristic
approach to rhythm and harmony are remarkably comparable throughout his
career.  Some of the differences are a matter of smaller forces he used
after his first period.  I wonder how much also is a matter of the advanced
age at which he recorded his works in later years and whether this slowed
him down.

Smaller forces are one notable facet of the Brahms recording here.  To
my ears, they are sufficient, even refreshing (and bravo to the woodwinds
in the slow movement.) In contrast, the larger forces of, say, the Chicago
Symphony in the Pearlman/Giulini recording, add power in the tuttis and
a greater weightiness to the effect generally, but I am not sure that
is really needed in this work.  At any rate, I find that I like this
performance quite a lot more than I expected to, given the reservations
I have often had about Marriner and given the restrained nature of
Hahn's performance in the Barber Concerto (noted in my review at
http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/s/sny89029a.html).  Aside
from that, there is little I feel a need to say about this very pleasurable
performance of the Brahms.  It is beautiful, and I expect to return to
it often.

I have high regard for Hahn's musicianship.  Aside from her exceptional
technical ability, what she says about her self-directed exploration of
scores alone suggests that she is unlikely to burn out and likely to
develop a wide repertoire.  Some of that repertoire is likely to be totally
new, judging by Sony's commissioning of Edgar Meyer's delightful concerto.
I would love to see further commissions, starting perhaps with concertos
by Melinda Wagner, who won the Pulitzer prize a couple of years ago
(http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/b/bdg09098b.html ), Libby
Larsen, Daniel Asia, and Christopher Rouse.

In view of Hahn's performance schedule on her website, I am anticipating
another Bach release in the next year or so.  Between next week and early
November she is playing combinations of the E major, A minor, double and
violin/oboe concertos in eleven locations, from Berlin and Vienna to
Honolulu, and points in between, including, I am happy to say, two within
reach of my home.  The only piece not by Bach she is scheduled to play in
this period is the Elgar in Munich.

Jim Tobin