Things We (Saw) Today, And Other Musical Notes

So how was your day? Mine was pretty eventful. I went down to the park this afternoon for my usual lunchtime walk and who do you think I should see leaving the park ahead of me? How about this for a clue.

She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah

She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah

She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.


Yep. Believe it or not there was this skinny old man in a sweatshirt and shorts walking out of the park with two security type people beside him, and there were these people in the parking lot waving and yelling out "We love you". He was waving back and I got a look at his face and thought "Hmmm, you know that guy looks familiar. He kind of looks like...

Paul McCartney!"

Then I thought "Nah, that can't be Paul McCartney. What would Paul McCartney be doing down here at the park. It must be someone else". So I went for my little lunchtime three miler, but all the time I was walking I kept thinking how much that guy looked like Sir Paul. Not the round cheeked little mop top from the movies mind you, but a more wrinkled and grandfatherly version. Still, dang it, it did kind of look like him.

So I got back to the office and I checked the newspaper and guess who is in town giving a concert tonight at San Jose Arena. Huh, need I say more. Then, as if that weren't proof enough, someone told me that there's a quiet, out of the way hotel near the park where a lot of celebrities stay there when they're in town and want to keep things sort of low-key. I don't know about you but that's all facts I need. I saw Paul McCartney today, and that's all there is to it!

And now as the day has wore on into the night it's begun to sink in to me just how famous that guy is. Jesus Christ, there aren't many people more famous than an ex-Beatle are there? And wouldn't you know it, dag nabbit, I didn't bring a camera. Damn. They say you should always bring a camera with you wherever you go in case something happens, and now I know why. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn.

Well that's the way it goes, I suppose, and to tell the truth Paul McCartney isn't nearly as big a celebrity to me now as he was, say, forty years ago. I mean it's probably been 30 years since he's written a song I liked, and some of his other projects have been pretty lame, if you ask me. Sure he's famous and I'm as big a sucker for celebrities as the next guy, but he's mostly famous for stuff he did a long time ago, and I think if I could pick the top 10 celebrities I'd like to run into at the park he probably wouldn't be one of them. But then again, I saw Paul McCartney!

Oh well, turning now to more current musical superstars I guess I should talk a little about the latest Hilary Hahn CD. Actually it's not her CD. She only has co-billing on this one along with pianist Natalie Zhu, and it features four Mozart Sonatas for Piano and Violin. Now I know millions turn to this blog for the best Classical CD reviews on the net so I won't beat around the bush. This CD is...

No, wait. Before I talk about the Mozart CD maybe I should talk a little bit about Sibelius instead. That would be Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), of course, and some other CD's I've been listening to lately. First let me explain that I have a bias towards the music of the late 1800's and early 1900's, particulary that type of music know as "Late Romantic" music, and particularly the music of Mahler and Sibelius. I should also explain that I know as much about music as I do about french cooking, which is not much, but I do know the music I like and, likewise, I also know when the soup is cold.

So, where were we?

Oh yeah, Sibelius. I love the music of Sibelius. He and Mahler were contemporaries, you know, but they were also just about as opposite as two composers could be. It's said that Mahler liked the big themes - life, death, resurrection, you know the whole grand cosmological scheme of things, while Sibelius was more pastoral, more natural, and more in tune with the inner world. That's what some people say, anyways, and for the most part I would agree. If you could generalize about the two then you could say that Mahler's music is much more expansive than the introspective and earthbound Sibelius.

Of the two, I prefer Mahler to Sibelius, but then again I prefer either one of them to most other composers I've heard. Anyways, Sibelius wrote this famous violin concerto back around 1904-1905, and it has since gone on to be one of the most recorded concerto's ever written for that instrument. That's according to me, and I can't think of a major violin virtuoso who hasn't recorded it at least once (except for a certain H.H., but we'll get to that later).

Probably the most famous recording is one done by Jascha Heifetz back in the 1960's (?) that many consider to be the definitive version of this particular piece. Hmmmm, well thanks to the miracle of the internet and 21st century technology you can now hear that famous recording and decide for yourself just how definitive it is. Personally, out of the hundreds (thousands? millions?) of Sibelius Violin Concerto recordings that are out there I've heard just four of them, and of the four the Heifetz has got to be the weakest. Instead of the raw emotional power that characterize the best interpretations (in my opinion), Heifetz dances and flits through the piece as though on a merry little jaunt through the countryside.

Somewhat better than the Heifetz is the Anne-Sophie Mutter interepretation dating from around the mid 1990's or so. Listen to Heifetz and then listen to Mutter and you'll wonder if you're listening to same piece. Where Heifetz flits and dances Mutter dramatizes and emotes, almost to the point of emotional cruelty. There are many who say Mutter's is the definitive reading, but it's too much of a soap opera for my tastes.

The only other two renditions of the concerto I've heard are both gems. The first is from Itzhak Perlman and the second from Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, a violinist who usually comes on a little too strong for my liking, but who gives what I think is the definitive reading among the four. The Perlman is a fantastic, virtuoso perfomance with an overpowering Russian feel to the music, much in the tradition of Tchaikovsky, a composer whom Sibelius was often compared to early in his career. However, as exhilirating as it is, it simply doesn't have the sort of raw power of the Salerno-Sonnenberg version. Maybe the musical purists will disagree, but raw power is what the Sibelius needs and Salerno-Sonnenberg provides it willingly and with gusto. Even in the Adagio she manages to soften the tone without losing any of that emotional strength that seems to power the engine of this piece. It's a remarkable CD that definitely belongs in any musical collection, classical or otherwise.

Which brings me back to Hilary Hahn and Natalie Zhu. The new CD is called Mozart Violin Sonatas, it's on the Deutsche Grammophone label (which means no rootkits, I hope), and would it really suprise anyone if I told you that the playing and the players are absolutely flawless. Probably not because, let's face it, anyone at all familiar with H.H.'s past achievements wouldn't doubt for a minute that she would utterly master these four Mozart Sonatas. They are absolutely suited to the brlliance of her style, and the dialog between N.Z. and H.H. is clever and witty in the best Mozart fashion, and everything on this CD from the picture on the front all the way to the barcode on the back is done with impeccable taste and style. And frankly, after a dozen or so listens I think I'm a little Mozart'd out.

I mean, it's not like there aren't any other Mozart CD's out there or any classical music stations playing Mozart day after day, morning, noon and night. In fact, I think at any given time Beethoven and Mozart probably account for 50% of all classical music currently playing on classical music stations across the nation. At least it seems that way, and that's why I love this CD but I wish that H.H. had done something a little different. I know, I know, everyone loves Mozart and certainly no record label is going to scream and holler if you decide to do a Mozart CD, but, geez, I'm just not in the mood.

Which brings me to the main point of this posting. That is I read somewhere that H.H. gave a performance or is going to give a performance somewhere and she played or is going to play a piece I didn't know was in her repertoire. I wish I could remember where I read it but the article said she was going to play...

The Sibelius Violin Concerto.

Hilary Hahn playing the Sibelius? Are you kidding me? Now don't get me wrong. I love H.H.'s playing and I've got every one of her CD's, but a raw, emotional piece like the Sibelius? Somehow, even as gifted as she is, the words "raw" and "emotional" aren't qualities I'd usually associate with her style. She is a strong player, however, and with much better instincts and control than others I've heard, so maybe she could pull off the Sibelius. Redefine it, if you will. Now that would be interesting. That would be something I'd like to hear. She could probably play the Mozart in her sleep but the Sibelius...hmmm.

Of course she has done some similar things in the past. Let me think. She won a well deserved grammy for the Brahms, and of course she recorded the Mendelssohn, although with not nearly the success of others she has recorded. And she did the Beethoven, but the Brahms and the Beethoven are very different from the Sibelius. The Sibelius is a little more out there. I tell you, if she ever decides to record it there will definitely be some interested fans who would be very anxious to hear what she does with it. And since she is the only major violinist I can think of who hasn't recorded it then, well, there you go. I guess that settles it.

Oops, wait a minute, I almost forgot. She's got some sort of Paganini project in the works. Heh, she'll ace that one. She's definitely got the chops to handle Paganini. And in the meantime (sigh), there's always Mozart.