Barber, Meyer: Violin Concertos

1	Violin Concerto, Op. 14:
2	Violin Concerto, Op. 14:
3	Violin Concerto, Op. 14:
4	Violin concerto: Movement
5	Violin concerto: Movement
Barber, Meyer: Violin Concertos
1.	Violin Concerto, Op. 14 23:13
	Composed by Samuel Barber
	Performed by Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Hilary Hahn
	Conducted by Hugh Wolff
2.	Violin concerto 26:28
	Composed by Edgar Meyer
	Performed by Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Hilary Hahn
	Conducted by Hugh Wolff

Barnes & Noble

This is the most exciting violin recording since, well, Hilary Hahn's last recording. Possessing a seductively silky tone and a fearless virtuosity that makes even the most difficult passage sound easy, the petite 19-year-old violinist is a titanic talent. Barber's Violin Concerto has received many fine recordings over the years, but this is truly exceptional. The first movement is achingly lyrical, the slow movement dark and searching, and the finale -- taken at a ferociously fast tempo -- is simply breathtaking. Edgar Meyer, the double bassist and composer whose career straddles the worlds of classical and popular music, has already proved that he knows how to write for the violin (check out his bluegrass-flavored compositions on Short Trip Home, featuring Joshua Bell). Meyer's new Violin Concerto, written especially for Hahn, has an all-American melodic directness and rhythmic sharpness that recalls Copland at his best. More poetic than splashy, it gives Hahn the opportunity to spin a hypnotic web of sound. The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, led by Hugh Wolff, give welcome bite to the Barber and provide a luminous backdrop for Hahn in Meyer's concerto. Andrew Farach-Colton

All Music Guide

This is the premiere recording of a successful new American violin concerto. This recording of the concerto by composer and double bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer was made in Ordway Hall, Saint Paul, Minnesota on September 27, 1999, shortly after its world premiere.

The same artists made the recording: The young American virtuoso Hillary Hahn (for whom the work was written) and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra under Hugh Wolff. The Concerto is uncommonly tuneful and tonal for a 20th Century Concerto, and should repeat on CD the success it has had in the concert hall.

Hahn is confident and authoritative in her concerto. She has a bright silken-silvery sound. She applies vibrato very lightly and quickly, resulting in a very pure effect. While the melodic style of the concerto is very American, with passages the recall middle-USA hymns and folk material, this is evidently Meyer's natural voice rather than an attempt to make an ethnic American impression, they way such material usually songs in the works of Copland and his generation.

Thus Hahn is correct to make no effort in this recording to sound folkish or "American." The support from Wolff and the chamber orchestra is very alert and supportive. Veteran producer Thomas Frost and engineer Richard King ensure absolutely smooth, sound, surprisingly rich for the chamber proportions of the orchestra.

While one can always hope for other performances with other approaches when a work as nice as this involved, Hahn's first recorded go at Meyer's concerto is an important and worthwhile recording. Joseph Stevenson