Hilary Hahn is a rare creature: a self-effacing soloist.

Tonight, she played the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the San Francisco
Symphony as if she were a member of the orchestra.  The result was a
"different" and electrifying performance.

At 22, Hahn has been in the limelight for almost a decade, and her growth
from prodigy to a superb musician is a heartening success story. It's
good that she resists the current vogue of dressing to kill, strutting,
bobbing and grimacing, but the real story is in the way she makes music.

Again, she is one with the orchestra.  In the opening Toccata, her
interplay with the many woodwind and brass micro-solos, the quiet, but
complete mastery of the music, her *playing* those fearsome syncopation
with absolute precision showed excellence, dedication to the music and
selfless maturity.  In a short duet with the first violin (Nadya Tichman
at her usual best), Hahn played intimate and moving chamber music.

The rightness of balances and tempi, however, couldn't have been achieved
without a strong, knowing presence on the podium.  Michael Tilson Thomas
was totally in control and yet he let the music breathe.

The two arias of the middle movements flowed gracefully, and the closing
Capriccio danced with restrained joy - this is music that can easily
become vulgar, but there was no hint of that in Davies Hall.

It was the right decision for the San Francisco Symphony to take the
Stravinsky with Hahn, along with John Adams' "My Father Knew Charles
Ives" on the European tour beginning next week.  [http://tinyurl.com/avgm.]
This is contemporary, American, varied, interesting and good repertory,
with an execution that's likely to be similar to tonight's concert.

"American," of course, with a qualifier, obvious in Stravinsky's case,
but repeated listening to Adams' work (reviewed before) yielded an even
stronger impression of close, obvious connections.

"My Father" is a beautiful work, one of Adams' best, but in a way, it
represents one giant step back to the end of the 19th century.  Early
Richard Strauss is all over the piece and, even more clearly, Schoenberg
of "Gurrelieder." And yet, "My Father" stands not only as an excellent,
most enjoyable work, but also as a proof of Adams arriving at an important
junction of his career.  The tools, the ability, the technique, a new,
more varied vocabulary are all there.  This is a work that will be judged
in the long run by what comes after it.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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