Hahn

We present three-time Grammy-winning violinist Hilary Hahn’s upcoming release on DG. The new album Paris features Poème for Violin and Orchestra by Parisian-born composer Chausson; Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No.1, first performed in Paris; and the world premiere recording of Rautavaara’s final score, Deux Sérénades, written for and premiered by Hahn, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and its Music Director, Mikko Franck.

Ever since its creation more than twenty-five years ago, the Accentus chamber choir has ardently championed the a cappella repertory: under its conductor and founder Laurence Equilbey, it has produced an impressive discography that sets the benchmark in this music. For this new recording, the first for Alpha, she hands over direction of the ensemble to Christophe Grapperon, its associate conductor since 2013: ‘It can never be said often enough: the a cappella repertory is a Holy Grail of vocal music! It is a sensory experience directly accessible to everyone, but demanding and often atypical for the listener.'

A two-time Grammy award winner, Hilary Hahn is no stranger to the less explored corners of the classical repertoire. Her previous Deutsche Grammophon disc, Higdon& Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Classical Charts and featured the world-premiere recording of Jennifer Higdon's Pulitzer prize-winning concerto. Prior to that Hahn has recorded Schoenberg's Concerto for Violin, Op. 36 coupled with Sibelius's Concerto for Violin in D minor, Op. 47 which also went on to top the Billboard Chart and achieved critical and popular success.

Weightless, floating sounds, far removed from any earthbound striving for a home key and eluding any measurable emphases; a dazzlingly bright play of colors in instrumentation and impressionist tones, combined with that affectionate, softly melodic character of the French language – that is what constitutes the special charm of the French art-song.

William Youn's first orchestral album for Sony Classical in cooperation with Deutschlandradio Berlin is dedicated entirely to the exuberant flair of fin-de-siècle Paris with rare repertoire by Reynaldo Hahn, Nadia Boulanger and Gabriel Fauré - a musical excursion into the salons of the Belle Époque full of dazzling rediscoveries.

After her last two albums of completely new compositions, “Silfra” and “In 27 Pieces – The Hilary Hahn Encores”, Hilary returns with classic-romantic repertoire. Two-times Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn now combines Mozart’s beloved Concerto in A, K 219 – with its fiery “Turkish” episode – with the rich, virtuosic romanticism of Vieuxtemps’ Violin Concerto No. 4.

The first half of the twentieth century marks the birth of three masterpieces for violin and piano, each bearing the traits of its author and echoing the thriving creativity of the time. Aylen Pritchin and Lukas Geniusas lead us through this mesmerizing exploration that extends from Debussy’s evocative power to Stravinsky’s modernism, without neglecting the nostalgic gaze of Hahn. Behold a sublime panorama of the rich and turbulent years of a musical France.

With her Navona debut I CLOSE MY EYES IN ORDER TO SEE, accomplished Canadian flutist Sara Hahn demonstrates her exceptional sensitivity for emotional nuance coupled with great virtuosic capability, but most of all: the healing power of music itself.

This is an oddly cool performance of one of the most overtly sentimental–indeed, gushing–pieces in the violin repertoire. In an effort simply to present, rather than interpret, the music, Hahn seems to have gone overboard–she plays with little portamento and vibrato, she keeps away from the music's soul. All that having been said, the playing itself is faultless, her tone lovely, and by the last movement her virtuosity is truly impressive. The classic performance remains Menuhin's, but Hahn and Davis and his LSO have much to offer here. Vaughan Williams' gorgeous-if-sappy "The Lark Ascending" is played ravishingly, with more overt feeling than the Elgar, and again the LSO add greatly to the pleasure with the woodwind section–and clarinet in particular–shining brightly.

When I was 16 years old, composer Jennifer Higdon was my imaginative, inspiring professor of twentieth-century music history at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She was also on her way to becoming one of the most-performed composers in America. A few years after graduation I participated in the premiere of Dark Wood, Jennifer’s bassoon quartet, and it went so well that we began talking about working together on a new violin sonata or concerto. But both of us were busy and years passed.