CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Hilary Hahn: A Portrait

starring: Hilary Hahn
directed by: Benedict Mirow

Release Date February 13, 2007
It's beyond words. My feelings about this extraordinary artist are impossible to quantify. I would have an easier time describing the most beautiful sunset that I have ever seen. All I can say, is that this DVD slays what is left of my rendered humble heart.

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Hilary Hahn ~ Brahms · Stravinsky - Violin Concertos

by: Johannes Brahms, Igor Stravinsky, Neville Marriner, Hilary Hahn, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

Release Date November 13, 2001
Brahms wrote the greatest romantic violin concerto. Szeryng and Monteux understood it. Perlman and Guilini understood it. But neither Hahn nor her conductor understand it. The Stravinsky, on the other hand, is very good for three of the four movements. However, the third movement drags as if Stravinsky's concerto needed a dreamy adagio. It doesn't, as Stern's recording with Stravinsky illustrates.

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Bach: Art of Fugue

from: Deutsche Grammophon

Release Date March 11, 2008
I returned this item for an exchange, since many of the pages were printed upside down, on 5/27 after following the directions for a return/replacement. It is now 7/09 and I am still waiting for a replacement. I have written twice to the dealer as well as to Amazon including one yesterday. I am tired of reviewing and would like very much for my son to to begin playing Bach. If anyone who actually reads this is in a position to make that happen!
MB

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 1; Spohr: Violin Concerto No. 8

from: Deutsche Grammophon

Release Date October 10, 2006
A thoroughly adequate workman-like performance. No doubt probably technically correct in every detail, this rendition of the Paganini concerto lacked the fire and passion I associate with this great Italian violinist and composer's virtuosity. Likewise, this version of the Spohr work lacked the heart and good humour one should expect from a world class performance. Let us hope that eventually Ms. Hahn will mature.

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century

by: Alex Ross

Release Date October 16, 2007
Other than the weather and traffic, and an occasional political talk show, audio CD's are the way to go while driving now, and this set was a unique and fascinating history of the 20th century from the vantage point of the classical musical world.

The author takes the reader through the landscape with the exquisite communication skills of a seasoned, in-depth critic, his analysis filled with beautiful, deep, and frightening metaphorical analysis of the classical creations and personas of the twentieth century, never straying from the vantage point of the classical music world.

I overlooked his occasional, obviously academically-indoctrinated, naively left-leaning personal interjections; and for a person involved so deeply with an ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Mozart: Violin Sonatas K. 301, 304, 376 & 526

by: Hilary Hahn, Zhu

Release Date October 11, 2005
Mozart's Violin Sotatas of Hahn is too clean instead of the unpleasantness of Anne-Sophie Mutter, and there is no fault but no fun in Hahn's Mozart. I think that it is not more than the average point, though played well in K. 304 and with a rise in K. 526. It is easier to listen more than Szeryng and Haebler, but it doesn't reach far from Mark Steinberg & Mitsuko Uchida in interest.

Natalie Zhu is good.

Recorded in 2004.

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Bach: Partitas Nos. 2-4

from: Sony Classics

Release Date March 18, 2008
Perahia is, with no doubt, one of the greatest performer of Bach's music.
Absolutely recommended.

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Hilary Hahn ~ Beethoven - Violin Concerto · Bernstein - Serenade

by: Ludwig van Beethoven, Leonard Bernstein, David Zinman, Hilary Hahn, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Release Date January 26, 1999
Beethoven of Hahn and Zinman: I think the violin concerto by them is to be able to say the following, compared with the concerto of Beethoven played by Mutter with Karajan to whom the age parts in the grandchild and the grandfather when Mutter was in her teens, Mutter's performance was only performed and existed on Karajan's palm, though the performance was made of the best use of the technique and was beautiful and was powerfully unrestricted done. However, Hahn is different. After the solo of Hahn enters after the exposition by the orchestra of the first movement, the performance Zinman plays moderate, the music comes tightened. Hahn is almost leading Zinman.

After I bought this CD, I could not understand the good points of Hahn's Beethoven for a long time. I heard ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Hilary Hahn - Barber & Meyer: Violin Concertos

from: Sony

Release Date March 14, 2000
I got this from the library this past spring. It was a rare case of absolute love at first measure. This strange and wondrous concerto cannot help but fascinate, and the ever-astounding Hilary Hahn gives a performance that I feel sure would meet with Samuel Barber's approval and highest admiration.
... Furthermore, if I do not get this for my birthday I will most certainly run down the street screaming like a bad Wagner soprano.

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Violin Concertos

by: Hilary Hahn, Mendelssohn, Shostakovich, Opo

Release Date November 05, 2002
I have in the past thought of Shostakovich in terms of barbed wire, tanks, and icy winters. This, until the orchestra in which I play viola, performed his 5th Symphony. I was overwhelmed by the power of it, and by the deep sadness I felt in it, in parts. With this in mind, I re-visited other works of his, including the First Violin Concerto. I first acquired a version with Maxim Vengerov as soloist, and was stunned at what I had overlooked in the music in the past. I then purchased this album, since Hilary Hahn has been my favourite violinist for some time. I have listened to the last three movements by each soloist repeatedly. I find both performances to be excellent, but, on balance, Hilary Hahn's interpretation is more moving, and it is intensely moving in places. To my ear, her ... Read More: