A concert of classical music consists almost always of several works. But sometimes making one of the pieces in the program so strongly the impression that there’s a total eclipse the other, they get a marginal importance for the overall experience.
As is the case when berwald hall this evening, the bidding on the three works of the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. When Hilary Hahn play Prokofiev’s first violin concerto, composed in 1917, it is like seeing the sun, all other stars fade into invisibility.
Hahn belongs to the little band among the world famous musicians who both have an outward-looking and popular artistry, and at the same time, a deep sensitivity and a great humility in the encounter with the work she takes on. From the very first note is Prokofiev’s violin concerto fully alive, eager, vital. She lifts the music out of time and space – modernism hit, the Russian revolution there, everything melts away – and the shows which forever engaging drama that is in this work. As the audience sits on the edge and follows the adventure, a film with a perfect script is played up even internal.
with two relatively slow rates and a fast in the middle instead of the opposite, which is effective and nice. But above all it is a concert where the soloist is not so much in dialogue with the orchestra in symbiosis with it – it is as if the violin is for word and deed, while the orchestra stands for experience, and frame of mind. In this kind of sparkling performance – the Swedish radio symphony orchestra (who has recorded several discs with Hilary Hahn) sounds fantastic during the Lahav Shani– it will be fascinating music.
Hahn offers a fine encore in the form of a saraband of her beloved Bach. It sounds different in relation to how Bach’s soloviolinmusik tend to be soft and never harsh, friendly rather than definite, more sad than grim, sliding instead of sudden changes, more dreamy than the down-to-earth. Great.
Prokofiev’s first symphony, ”the classic”, also from 1917. A charming trifle that works effectively as a refreshing appetizer, while the fifth symphony, which is played after the pause appears as a very hearty dessert. It is loud but not earthshaking, it contains darkness but no anxiety. One hears no man in this music, and therefore it is difficult to be affected, even if the Lahav Shani (which apparently is the very inside of the Prokofiev) directs the inspired and squeezes out the most from the Swedish radio symphony orchestra. But it is of no importance. The concert’s main course is so stunning that evening already is unforgettable.
Skivrecension: Hilary Hahn & Hauschka – ”Silfra”
