Elgar: Violin Concerto / Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending

1	Violin Concerto in B mino
2	Violin Concerto in B mino
3	Violin Concerto in B mino
4	The Lark Ascending, roman
Elgar: Violin Concerto / Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
1.	Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61 49:48
	Composed by Edward Elgar
	Conducted by Colin Davis
	Performed by London Symphony Orchestra and Hilary Hahn
2.	The Lark Ascending, romance for violin & orchestra 16:21
	Composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams
	Conducted by Colin Davis
	Performed by London Symphony Orchestra and Hilary Hahn

Barnes & Noble

Elgar's Violin Concerto tends to bring out the best in young virtuosos. This may be surprising, given that the musical challenges of the work are even more daunting than its considerable technical demands -- but the proof is on disc. Yehudi Menuhin was just 16 when he made the first complete recording (under the composer's direction), and a teenage Nigel Kennedy established his reputation with a superb performance. Now here's Hilary Hahn with a remarkably assured and mature interpretation. Sir Colin Davis does not shape the orchestral part as tautly as Elgar himself did, nor is he as magisterial as Vernon Handley (who conducted for Kennedy's recording), but his is a compellingly passionate, sometimes even volatile, view. Hahn's response to the music is also highly emotional, to be sure, but there's a poise and a rare element of delicacy to her playing, too. DG's recording underlines the elegance of Hahn's approach by not placing her too close to the microphone. As a result, she occasionally seems dwarfed by the orchestra, but this a realistic perspective, and one that only enhances the music's dramatic character. As for the technical hurdles, Hahn leaps each one with apparent ease; note, for example, her finely etched realization of the intricate passagework at the beginning of the finale. The CD offers an encore of sorts: Ralph Vaughan Williams's pastoral meditation The Lark Ascending. In case you were too involved in the drama of the Elgar to notice, the exquisite refinement of Hahn's tone is unmistakable here. Not to be missed. Andrew Farach-Colton

New York Times

Though [the Concerto] is famously taxing (Elgar was an able fiddler), Ms. Hahn never lets on, handily navigating the first movement's shifting landscape with youthful élan. The middle movement profits from her superb articulation, and in its pages she limns, if not pathos, then at least deep feeling. In the fast-paced finale, Ms. Hahn handles her violin as an expert test driver might handle a vintage automobile, confidently and with relish. Her concentration is remarkable. David Mermelstein

Philadelphia Inquirer

1/2 Davis and the Londoners sound as if they own this music. They play with an authority -- a swagger, even -- that raises Elgar to a rare level of audacious joy. Hahn and especially Davis flex tempos in a way that swerves the music into unexpected corners of meaning and emotion. It's all very satisfying. Peter Dobrin