|
| Schoenberg Violin Concerto Op.36/Sibelius Violin Concerto Op.47 | 
 enlarge | Creators: Sibelius, Schoenberg, Hilary Hahn
Label: DG
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy New: $9.79
You Save: $7.19 (42%)
New (45) Used (12) from $8.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 2311
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.6
MPN: 001085802
UPC: 028947773467
EAN: 0028947773467
ASIN: B0011WMWUW
Release Date: April 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Tracks:
| • | 1 Poco allegro | | • | 2 Andante grazioso | | • | 3 Finale: Allegro | | • | 1 Allegro moderato | | • | 2 Adagio di molto | | • | 3 Allegro, ma non tanto |
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
In another original pairing violinist Hilary Hahn brings together the familiar, highly commercial and long-awaited recording of the famous Sibelius Violin Concerto with the rarely performed Violin Concerto by Arnold Schoenberg. Hahn brings out the romantic qualities of Schoenberg's Concerto--known as one of the most difficult pieces in the violin repertoire--showing why it makes an ideal coupling with the Sibelius--"Hahn didn't merely play the notes, she passionately engaged with them." (The Daily Telegraph on a live performance of the Schoenberg Violin Concerto). As both an acclaimed Sibelius interpreter and a known advocate of 20th-century music in concert halls worldwide, Esa-Pekka Salonen is the ideal musical partner in this project.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 Clearly she's among the giants April 9, 2008
97 out of 101 found this review helpful
I'm absolutely astonished with this recording. I'm an old string player with a doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music and I have studied the Schoenberg Concerto for years. I know firsthand just how difficult it is (you literally have to learn a new way to finger some passages, using your ring finger and not the pinky for the highest notes because the ring finger can reach farther up on lower strings!).
But the difficulties are not only technical: the piece is VERY romantic and it's EXCEPTIONALLY hard to bring that to it. I never hoped in my lifetime to hear a recording of this concerto as natural and lyrical as this one. Hahn has captured perfectly the atmosphere and drama of the piece. This could easily do for the Schoenberg Concerto what Isaac Stern's recording of the Berg Concerto did for that work.
My amazement is made the more so by the fact that for years I resisted even listening to Hahn's recordings: too young, couldn't be ready for the works she was performing. When I finally did condescend to hear her, I immediately bought everything she had ever done. She's a superb performer (she and Janine Jansen are arguably the two most musical young violinists on the scene today; and Jansen has shown no signs of being nearly as adventurous).
But when I heard she had recorded the Schoenberg Concerto, I have to admit that even with that background, I was skeptical. The work is just too much - it's tempting to think that it's too much for a human being. I'm glad I never gave in to thinking that: now I know it isn't true. This recording is amazing!
About Salonen little need be said: everything he touches turns to gold. The orchestra, of course, could easily have ruined things; that they rise to the level demanded by such a superb soloist and conductor speaks volumes for their remarkable abilities. I look forward to hearing much more from them.
The Schoenberg Violin Concerto has finally joined the Piano Concerto as a major brainchild of the composer, not merely a respected but unheard stepsister. I know it's not quite so adventuresome, Hilary, but perhaps a Berg Concerto to go with this one? At the right tempi, which I know you (unlike so many) will find?
Hahn, Schoenberg, and the Greatest Violin Concerto... April 17, 2008
28 out of 34 found this review helpful
.
Ms. Hahn's brilliant realization of Schoenberg's masterwork is absolute artistry of the highest order.
Mlle. Hahn has really done something remarkable here: she has deeply understood this piece not merely as an intellectual exercise, but sincerely as the profoundly moving passionately expressive work of art it is.
Hahn has illustrated trenchant insight here with crystal-clarity of vision.
She not only has the vast technical ability to execute the many challenges the work incorporates--(viz., pizzicato, double-stopping, glissandi, etc.)--but she has the maturity and psychic gravitas to appreciate the exquisite beauty of Schoenberg's text.
She apprehends each section and passage--each phrase and sentence--and elucidates Schoenberg's entire statement as a whole.
She reveals the singing, hyper-Romantic/Brahmsian melodies with great beauty while punctuating the echt-Modernistic dodecaphonic argument with precision.
The Swedish RSO also does an outstanding job with Schoenberg's colourful and multifaceted score.
Bravo! Encore!!
.
In addition: Ms. Hahn perfectly realizes the popular Sibelius Concerto. Methought I had wearied of the work through overexposure; well!--Ms. Hahn revitalizes the piece with thrilling panache.
.
In conclusion: this gracious lady is a genuine artist with extraordinary talent and prescient vision.
.
P.S.: there is a classic older reading by Zvi Zeitlin with Rafael Kubelik and the Bavarian Radio SO:
Berg: Violin Concerto; Schoenberg: Piano Concerto; Violin Concerto
Berg: Violin Concerto/Schoenberg: Violin Concerto
Schoenberg: Piano Concerto Op.42/Violin Concerto Op.36/Berg:Violin Concerto/Kubelik
Schoenberg (Master Musicians Series)
.
Schoenberg Violin Concerto April 21, 2008
24 out of 27 found this review helpful
The first thing I want to say in regards to this recording is, thank you. I've waited for a new recording of the Schoenberg Violin Concerto for years and Hahn/Salonen/Swedish RSO present near perfection. The previous reviews already cover a lot of ground and I'll try not to repeat too much.
Schoenberg is feared, his music "unapproachable, sterile, mathmatical." I say no. I've been an active Schoenberg fan for nearly 20 years. I love Bach, I love Beethoven. Schoenberg in many regards is following in that tradition, his music an extension or continuation of what they and Brahms and Wagner were doing with chromatic harmony and the formal structure of their music. Schoenberg simply took it one step further. I think the difficulty listeners find when approaching Schoenberg is following the melodic line. In my opinion there is no doubt it is trickier than tonal writing at least because, for the most part, tonal music is what we are familiar with. It takes effort for the listener to get used to this but the reward is a world of sound not available in tonal music.
I don't get overly caught up in how Schoenberg used the 12 note system (and whatever label you choose to apply to it). I hear the music as personal expression. He was, to my ears, a romantic composer, looking for ever more harmonic color and a master of counterpoint. At his best his music could be described as "hyper-romantic." For two examples other than his Violin Concerto, his Piano Concerto packs plenty of emotion as he describes leaving 1930's Germany behind and adjusting to California and his new life, and his Variations for Orchestra (see the Karajan version) presents simply HUGE romanticism.
As for the recording at hand, transcending music theory and making music that speaks is its strength. No reason to expand on that subject as previous reviews have covered at length how well this recording succeeds on that level. I will voice a complaint about the recording which is that I wish the orchestra playing was a little closer in the mix, more of a close-mic sound. Schoenberg's orchestrations are rich and some of the inner detail of the part writing is lost here. But make no mistake, this is an otherwise beautiful sounding recording.
I look forward hearing the Sibelius but right now I just can't get past this wonderful Schoenberg. Bravo!
Most will come for the Sibelius, but the Schoenberg is spectacular April 8, 2008
15 out of 19 found this review helpful
Most listeners will approach the Schoenberg Violin Cto. in the mood of "take your medicine, it's good for you," so I'm glad that Hilary Hahn makes a point of placing it first on the program. Her reading sweeps the field. It is amazingly enthusiastic and exciting, and with Salonen as the ideal partner, I could hear the work not as a modernist puzzle but as a satisfying emotional experience. Colors are vivid; the soloist is placed very close to the mike. Everything, in other words, is done to heighten visceral impact. I still couldn't follow Schoenberg's intellectual convolutions, but that hardly mattered since I was enjoying myself. Another big step in trying to hear Schoenberg's atonalism the way we hear Mahler and Strauss.
Salonen had already made a first-rate Sibelius concerto recorded with Cho-Liang Lin. It was musuclar and colorful and quickly became a top choice among critics. However, recorded sound has made advances since the 90's, and Hilary Hahn's version, also musuclar and colorful, gives us more detail and naturalness in both the violin and orchestra. I'm struck by how much more forceful a player she has become. The opening bars are intense rather than floating and mysterious. Which means a certain sacrifice of atmosphere -- by comparison Joshua Bell seems philosophical and muted.
Salonen is a cool-tempered modernist, and he doesn't linger anywehre; the slow movement presses forward with a steady tread where others bask in its melancholy. Conductor and soloist are single-minded in the finale, which gets punched out a bit too much for my taste but is undeniably forceful. In all, the only fault I can find with the whole performance is a lack of nuance, which may not bother others who respond more to overt excitement.
In sum, Hahn continues to be a crowd favorite, a growing talent, and well deserving of the spotlight.
One CD indispensable April 8, 2008
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
The Concerto of Schoenberg is a rarity .There are few but fantastic recordings : Amoyal( with Boulez),Baker( with Kraft), and the first to Play it : Louis Krasner( with Mitropoulos). The difference of this magnificent record: The Orchestra and the conductor. The Orchestra is fantastic and Salonen has one enthusiasm with a work that maybe he doesn't like very much. Now lets speak of the violinist : she is amazing. She plays Schoenberg like one "normal" work. Ach , when I remember of what Heifetz said of the work.....it was impossible to him, but not for Hahn.The Sibelius has one enormous concurrence . But it is one of the best recordings that I heard, comparable with Ferras/Karajan and Kavakos/Vanka, my favorites. But what is realy important here is the Schoenberg. Finally one great record of one difficult work, to hear and to play. I would end with a word about this orchestra.By far one of the best in the moment.I want to hear more times this fantastic ensemble!!!
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
