Not that Julia Fischer doesn't try. She has all the qualities I like best in a violinist - a lack of flash and showiness, and a determination to let the music speak for itself rather than speak for it. Yet on this recording Fischer seems uncharacteristically heavy-handed and thick, with a tendency towards overdramatics, showing none of Hilary Hahn's understated grace, elegance or intelligence. When Hahn plays Back it's like the notes come off the page straight to my ears with no human in between, but at times Fischer's Bach seems to strain at the effort. I'm sure it was not Fischer's intent, but this CD just made me want to back to my collection and remember how good that early Hahn effort was.
In fact, hearing Hahn's Solo Bach made me want to go back and listen to all of her recordings again (I own all of them). Man, what an amazing run she had. Her Beethoven, Brahms, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Bach Concertos were all some of the best recordings of these works I've ever heard, and her Barber and Elgar have simply never been equalled.
Her Barber, in particular, made with Hugh Wolff, is really the only Barber Violin Concerto worth having. Believe me, I haven't listened to 'em all, but I've listened to quite a few, and no other violinist besides Hahn has ever gotten this piece right. It's a 20th century American piece, not a 19th century romantic piece, yet every other violinist seems to want to layer it in goopy sentimentality, particularly the first two movements. I'd suggest that before anyone plays it they listen to Hahn's clean, crisp reading of the piece, and then rethink their approach.
Of course I've written about her Elgar before, so I won't go into it again. I think this is sadly one of the most overlooked releases of the 21st century, and I don't really know why. It's a beautiful piece of incredible depth, one that bears repeated listenings, and yet even Hilary Hahn, when asked to recount the names of her past recordings, forgot to include it. I don't get it. It's probably my favorite CD and the one I asked her to sign when she came to the City last month (ooops, I don't think I was supposed to do that!), but no one else seems to pay it much attention. Maybe it's because the one thing that's never in short supply in the world of classical music is opinions on how something should or shouldn't be played, and sometimes Hahn's distinctive style just might work against her.
Oh well, that just makes it all the sadder to see her lose so much of her focus lately. I don't know, are we coming to the end of Hilary Hahn's classical music career? It sure seems that way. Take, for example, her work on the Trail of Dead CD "World's Apart", a project probably best left unmentioned. I was reading a posting done by one of the TOD bandmembers in which he explained how the band liked to perform their shows while high on ecstasy, a fitting exposition of just how seriously the bandmembers themselves take their own music (I understand that the Berlin Phil similarly likes to get totally trashed before their concert performances). So what's her audience supposed to make of a project like this? What would you say if Gil Shaham or Yo-Yo Ma announced they were going to do a CD with some of their stoner friends? You're gonna WHAT?
And now, as a follow-up to that ill-concieved project, comes Hahn's next CD with folkie Tom Brosseau. Evidently it must be an important undertaking for her because according to her concert schedule she is devoting a lot of time and effort towards promoting it. I don't know Brosseau's music, really, but I have listened to it on the internet. It's not TOD, that's for sure. More like a lot of homespun populism about dusty towns and prairie grass, and how the little people are the salt of the earth and all that. It ain't Dylan or Joni Mitchell, but it ain't bad either. His website says he reads a lot of Steinbeck and that's ok too. Guess he's probably one of those thoughtful, sensitive types who spends a lot of his time staring fix'edly into the middle distance. The Brosseau-Hahn CD hasn't come out yet so there's nothing I can say, but somehow I don't think it's going to be Paganini.
Which brings us back to the question at hand - namely, whither Hilary? Her Mozart CD was a bit of a stumble. The playing was excellent but it lacked the depth of other players like Anne-Sophie Mutter. The Paganini-Spohr CD had a brilliant, and I mean brilliant performance of the Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1, but was brought down a little by a less than inspiring Spohr Violin Concerto No. 8. I understand the personal reasons that Hahn included the Spohr on this CD, reasons she has explained many times, but frankly it's a piece that just doesn't go anywhere. It's a beautiful piece with some difficult passages, but you keep waiting for it to develop some depth or direction, and it just sort of lays there.
Now with her forays into popular music I have to wonder if Hilary Hahn's classical days are coming to an end. It seems impossible to even think of the possiblity, but she's been doing this for a long time, and in my minds eye I can see a person tired and spent and surrounded by promoters and publicists and favor-seekers and all assorted types of hangers-on, and maybe she just feels it's time for her to go on to other things.I don't know, but if I could ask one question of her, if I could sit down with beside her and speak, then...I guess she'd probably squirt me in the face with pepper spray and yell for the police. But before they wrestle me to the ground, I'd ask one favor.
"You know Hilary, I don't know how many CD's you have left on your DG contract, but if this next one is to be your last then why not make it your greatest CD yet. Not just for the sake of your audience who has supported you all these years, and not even for the sake of all the people who've helped you along the way, but for your own sake and for the sake of all the hard work you've put in over the years to get where you are. Make a CD that'll make everyone miss you when you're gone, go out with a bang, and then go pursue your popstar dreams or whatever it is you have in mind. Will you do that Hilary?"
And then they can throw me in jail, but at least I'll have said my piece.
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