Hilary Hahn performs in Ottawa with the NAC Orchestra

Last night (Thursday, April 20, 2006) Hilary Hahn performed the second concert of her debut with the National Arts Center (NAC) Orchestra. She was in town to perform the Glazunov Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 82 along-side conductor Arild Remmereit also making his NAC debut (filling in for Pinchas Zukerman who is currently on leave). The orchestra seemed quite comfortable with Remmereit at the helm despite this being their second performance together. Southam Hall certainly wasn’t a full house but there was a good crowd on hand.

The Glazunov concerto is quite a demanding work for the soloist and while rarely included in the repertoire of many orchestras of late this performance was a pleasure. In all I am finding it difficult to classify Ms. Hahn’s interpretation of the work given the relative lack of reference points I have, though I would say that she took a rather conservative approach. Given the nature of this work on this night her approach was dead on.

There is something about her 1864 Vuillaume violin that produces what I find to be the most pleasing sound of any violin I have every heard in person. Its pure warm tone is truly amazing and holds perfectly into the higher registers of the instrument. That said, if there was anything lacking about the performance it was the presence of a more-pronounced-than-usual difference in the sound quality of the soloist’s violin to that of the string section.

The work was played straight through without a pause as expected. The moderato first movement was rhapsodic with both the orchestra and Ms. Hahn in perfect alignment. Remmereit was in solid control and maintained the orchestra at a complementary volume throughout. I love the romanticism of this piece and I found the associated lyricism conveyed in this performance to be quite moving - something that was enhanced by Hahn’s graceful movements. In this light I was struck with the way, during her breaks, she looked around at each section of the orchestra as they were highlighted in the score seemingly enjoying the music, and then resumed her playing quickly and with flawless timing.

The dancing allegro third movement was a brilliant demonstration of Ms. Hahn’s precise intonation and technical mastery as well as that of the NAC Orchestra. This interpretation highlighted the colourful orchestration especially apparent in the third where Glazunov’s variations made me wonder why this concerto isn’t heard more often. The pinnacle moment of the evening came at the end of the andante sostenuto second movement with the stirring virtuoso cadenza. This is really what I came to hear, and Hillary didn’t disappoint. Fortunately Southam Hall at the National Arts Center has decent acoustics- this combined with the Vuillaume had the audience in silent awe. Hahn handled the dynamics perfectly including the pianissimo bars that were clear and even and not at all “scratchy”. There are not many performers that can make this most difficult unaccompanied solos fill an auditorium but with the ease she sailed through the multiple stops and polyphonic phrases you might have thought there were two violins on stage. Good grief.

The performance raised a rousing ovation after which Hahn returned for the encore which she announced as “Andante by Bach” (From Sonata #2 in A minor I believe). Honestly the encore was relatively lack-luster as if she put all over her energy into the Glazunov and was ready to go home. And with that and the most elegant bow of any classical performer I have seen she disappeared off stage.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 21st, 2006 at 23:32:51 and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.