Hilary Hahn

Hilary Hahn

ANOTHER HIT FOR HILARY HAHN

The Young Violinist Triumphs in Two Concertos
Still only 21, violin virtuoso Hilary Hahn has already earned a lifetime's worth of accolades. Time magazine declared her "America's best young classical musician," and her handful of recordings have garnered glowing reviews. Hahn's debut on the Sony Classical label, a program of works by J. S. Bach, arrived in 1997 to much acclaim; two years later came a striking account of Beethoven's Violin Concerto with Bernstein's "Serenade." Then, in 2000, appeared her most ambitious program yet, combining Samuel Barber's Concerto with one written specifically for her by Edgar Meyer. Her latest disc, which presents the Brahms and Stravinsky violin concertos assisted by Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, couples one of the mainstays of the repertoire with Stravinsky's attractive and charming but often overlooked work. It shows once again Hahn's fondness for unusual pairings, but it also displays her deepening artistry and exceptional skill. Barnes & Noble.com's EJ Johnson caught up with the rising star to chat about her latest ear-catching project.

Barnes & Noble.com: It seems you like to couple works that one doesn't necessarily think of together, like the Beethoven Concerto with Bernstein's "Serenade." And now Brahms and Stravinsky. Why does that approach appeal to you?

Hilary Hahn: I like to put pieces together that aren't normally thought of as being together, pieces that stand well on their own but that also complement each other. Each brings out an aspect of the other that might not be brought out by a piece that's similar. But there is some reason why they relate to each other. In this case the Brahms and the Stravinsky have the historical fact in common that they were both written by non-violinists with the substantial aid of a violinist: Brahms with Joseph Joachim and Stravinsky with Samuel Dushkin. Of course, each composer approaches their piece differently than the other, but you can tell that even where they were thinking in a non-violinistic way, what is written is still playable. You can tell where the violinist kicks in.

B&N.com: Yes, you describe this connection in the CD's liner notes, which you wrote. Was it your idea to write them?

HH: Yes, because I figured I had some personal experiences with the pieces that might explain my approach to them. And also, I know why I chose to put them together. So I felt like I might as well write them myself. I wrote a little bit for the Bach recording, and I wrote a little bit more for the Beethoven/Bernstein. And I thought that I probably had the most thorough perspective on the Barber and Meyer together, so I might as well just write those myself. And I enjoyed doing that, so I thought I might as well do it again.

B&N.com: You also describe your first encounters with these two concertos. The first time you heard the Brahms seemed like a particularly powerful experience. You called it "unforgettable, magically beautiful, impossibly grand." Could you recount that?

HH: I think I was seven. I remember sitting there, and I couldn't see very much because I wasn't very tall. [laughs] I heard it, and it immediately caught my ear and struck me as something that was a great piece. I didn't know a whole lot at that point, and I'd never thought about playing it myself. But hearing the violinist play it and studying the violin at the time myself, I think that it opened my eyes to possibilities.

B&N.com: And now here is your first recording of it. Was it daunting to do, considering there are so many legendary versions out there?

HH: There are a lot of great recordings of it. But I have to say that I've always wanted to record it, but not because I feel like my version is superior to anyone else's. I studied it with Jascha Brodsky, who was 73 years older than I was and was himself a student of Eugéne Ysaÿe and Efrem Zimablist. He came to the States to study with Zimbalist after hearing Zimbalist play the Brahms in Europe. So I just felt like I had a connection to a historical way of playing it. But in the course of recording, you learn a lot, too. When I record something, I like to try different ways during the session and see what works best. Because sometimes when you play something, you can't tell if it's coming across. And so in the course of a session, you learn about your own interpretation, you learn about other aspects of the piece that you might not have expected to encounter.

B&N.com: So your interpretation is constantly evolving.

HH: Yes. The thing is, I see a recording as not being the definitive statement of someone's interpretation for all time. I see it as capturing a moment in someone's perception of the piece. I play Bach differently now than when I recorded it. It's not better or worse, it's just different. I'm still very happy with the recording, and I'm happy to discover new things in the pieces. So all my interpretations change over time. The recording is just a representation of how I heard the piece at that particular time.

B&N.com: And the Stravinsky Concerto. You came to that later, right?

HH: Yes. Somewhat. It's all relative. [laughs] I learned the Brahms when I was 13, or something like that. I guess I was 17 when I started learning the Stravinsky. Mr. Brodsky had died, and I was trying to figure out something to work on next. I had studied a lot of repertoire with him, so I was looking at pieces that I hadn't heard so much in public, or I hadn't heard live, pieces that seemed interesting to me. I stumbled across a recording of the Stravinsky, and I really liked it. I got a score and took a look at it and thought I might as well learn it.

B&N.com: What about it appealed to you?

HH: It was a combination of things. It's very unusual in form and structure. It's not much like any other concerto I've ever encountered. I like the idea of the first chord of each movement being the same. And I also liked the rhythm in it, the very sharp rhythms at times and the more melismatic parts in some of the slower moments. And then also the interplay between harmony and melody. The texture is rather clear, but there's always a lot going on.

B&N.com: It's not really that well known, which seems curious considering the composer and its very approachable, Neo-Classical style. Would you like to be its champion?

HH: Well, I don't think any particular piece should have one champion. What's nice is to see a piece appear in a lot of different programs played by a lot of different people and just seem to find its way into the standard repertoire. It would be nice if that would happen to this piece. For me, it is standard repertoire now. [laughs] But my perspective is a bit different because I've recorded it and I've been playing it a lot. It's a piece that hasn't been done a whole lot, but places seem interested in programming it.

B&N.com: What about the Meyer Concerto? It was written for you, so you would seem its natural advocate.

HH: One thing I like about the Meyer is I feel it's a piece that can be played in a lot of different ways. There's a lot of room for interpretation in it, and it will be interesting to see if people play it. And there are other people who want to play it as soon as I've finished doing it a few more times next year. So it's really rewarding to see a piece start to come into general awareness and not just be a one-person piece.

B&N.com: How did you come to work with Neville Marriner for this recording?

HH: I actually played Brahms with him in Seattle a few years ago, and I thought then, "Wow, it would be great to record this piece with him." I wanted to record Brahms anyway, but I didn't know with whom, and that's a very important part of it. So when I worked with him, and we had the concerts, things just clicked really well. I thought it would be really great one day if I had the chance to put the Brahms down on disc with Neville conducting.

B&N.com: And he liked the idea of pairing that with the Stravinsky?

HH: Yes. And I knew that he and the Academy could do both really well. They're very different pieces, and it's not easy to have the capability to do both. The Academy is a slightly smaller orchestra than some, although for the Brahms it was filled out to some extent. And being slightly smaller and being virtuosic, I knew they had the agility for a piece like the Stravinsky and the unity for a piece like the Brahms.

B&N.com: What's on the horizon recording-wise? Perhaps Tchaikovsky with some little-known gem?

HH: [laughs] That's a good idea, but my next recording is Mendelssohn and Shostakovich One.

B&N.com: Well, that's along the same lines, somewhat.

HH: People are probably going to have some sort of contest to guess what my next recording will be! After that, I'm hoping to record the Bach Concerti, and then at some point Mozart's Sonatas. But it will be fun to see what happens with the Brahms and Stravinsky. Everything went really smoothly. The orchestra, Neville, and of course me and the crew. Everyone was really working well together.

B&N.com: You went to study at Curtis when you were only ten, which seems impossibly young. What was it like to be a child studying at that very prestigious school?

HH: It was kind of nice. [laughs] Because it's a very small school -- it has 160 students -- so it's very friendly, and you get to know everyone. It's really well set up for people to learn from each other and really grow and thrive without being backstabbed by other students or having to compete for certain teachers. The teacher picks you in the audition process; you don't pick the teacher. So as a result there's no pecking order of students, there's no particular teacher that everybody is vying to study with, which is really an ideal way to go about it.

B&N.com: Were there others there your age?

HH: Well, the first few years I was the youngest. But it really felt like a big family. There are students from all over the world who go to Curtis. And so you have people that are really different from each other coming together, playing in the orchestra, going to class, studying different things, spending time together, playing chamber music with one another. It's a perfect experience.

B&N.com: It sounds like you didn't think of yourself as a child prodigy.

HH: No, not at all! I did the bachelor's degree requirements between 12 and 16, and I could have graduated then, but I wound up staying three more years because I was interested in other things, too. Only at the point where I could have graduated did I sign with management, with Sony, and start doing a lot frequently. And even then I eased into it. I was 16 at that point, which is past the child prodigy age.

B&N.com: Was that a difficult transition?

HH: No, because I was always doing things here and there. I was very busy at school with performances and rehearsals and classes and stuff like that. But I gradually added more and more performances outside of school every year. So it was a real gradual thing, and it didn't feel like a jolt at any one point. I still haven't really felt a jolt, because if one is well prepared, if you know what you're getting into, and you know all the details of it, then it's easier to take on more and more every year.

November 4, 2001 EJ Johnson