Hilary Hahn Paris 45rpm 2LP

Stereophile: Performance 4.5/5 Stars / Sonics 4/5 Stars

TAS Rated 4.5/5 Music, 4/5 Sonics in the July/August 2021 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Analog Planet Rated 11/11 Music, 9/11 Sonics!

Hilary Hahn is one of the most innovative and interesting artists of our time. The three-time GRAMMY award winner is returning to Deutsche Grammophon with her long-awaited new album and pays homage to the rich cultural heritage of a city that has been close to her heart throughout her career. "Paris," says Hahn, "is about expression, it's about emotion, it's about feeling connected to a city and a cultural intersection, in a way that's inspiring for the player and the listener. It has Parisian threads all the way through it. But it's also a big reference to the arc of my career."

The initial idea for recording Paris grew from Hahn's term as artist-in-residence with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France across the 2018-19 season. Following a 2014 performance of Rautavaara's Violin Concerto with Mikko Franck, she asked the conductor whether his friend and fellow-countryman might consider writing a second concerto. Franck and Rautavaara discussed the idea of a set of serenades, but it looked as if its realization would be prevented by Rautavaara's ill health. His death at the age of 87 in July 2016 appeared to settle the matter. Franck was shocked, however, when Rautavaara's widow showed him the near-complete manuscript of a wonderful, elegiac composition for violin and orchestra.

"Mikko realized immediately that this was our piece," recalls Hahn. The OPRF commissioned prominent Finnish composer Kalevi Aho, who had studied with Rautavaara, to complete the orchestration. "Our recording is from the February 2019 world premiere, which closed out Rautavaara's catalogue in an emotional and poignant historical performance."

When choosing works to join Rautavaara's Deux Sérénades on this album, the violinist decided on two pieces rooted in the history of music-making in Paris. It includes Ernest Chausson's Poème and Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No.1, which received its first performance in the French capital in 1923.

These pieces together represent a living history of artistic culture. Everything in this recording is a labor of love, for the love of music and for the love of expression.

An absolute delight, and, yes, thoroughly Parisian.

What a gorgeous recording! Equal credit goes to Hahn, who performs with her customary big-toned generosity and clarity, and to the tasteful, measured Franck, whose quintessentially French orchestra's warm cushion of sound is ideal for this repertoire. If you're shopping for a gift for your sweetheart (who could be yourself), look no farther.

Conductor and orchestra provide a radiant accompaniment, and Hilary Hahn gives each phrase its due with lyrical beauty, fairy-tale whispers, spiky laughter, or Jimi Hendrix-like distortion. Only after Einojuhani Rautavaara died did Hahn know that he was composing Two Serenades for her. They are lush landscapes rather than incisive portraits, though the second serenade begins to dance just before its unsatisfying, abrupt ending. That aside, Paris is a must-have and another milestone for this violinist.

The playing on this double disc is superb by both Hahn, and the orchestra. The Prokofiev is technically flawless, with Hahn navigating with finesse and agility the concerto's complex twists and turns... The sound of this album was highly impressive, especially for a 21st century digital recording by a major label... The cutting, done by Sidney Meyer at Emil Berliner, is excellent... an excellent album by one of today's most important virtuoso artists, featuring both familiar and new repertoire that should please most listeners.