Hilary Hahn’s Prokofiev
The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra performed a concert on Sunday, May 27, 2012 at Davies Symphony Hall. The program included works by Finnish composer Kalevi Aho, as well as the Symphony #6 by Dmitry Shostakovich.
The main item on the program—for me—was that Hilary Hahn was the soloist in a performance of the Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1.
This violin concerto is a highly lyrical piece, with a lot of contrasts, and melodies that are mirrored between the soloist and the orchestra. Ms. Hahn’s performance was really beautiful, and the audience expressed their appreciation for her at the end.
Ms. Hahn delighted the audience by playing two encores. She first played The Blue Curve of the Earth, which she commissioned from composer Tina Davidson–a challenging piece with much use of double stops and pizzicato that the audience loved.
Ms. Hahn came back to the stage with her violin a second time, eliciting a laugh from the audience, this time to play a portion of the Bach A – minor Sonata No. 2 for solo violin. Bach – in my view – has long been a Hahn specialty, and being in a slow introspective tempo it was a terrific contrast to the first encore by Davidson.
Great concert!
Here is Hilary Hahn playing the Prokofiev violin concerto #1
http://youtu.be/XdWu0S6f7lk
Here again is Hilary Hahn, playing the violin concerto Nr.1 by Serge Prokofiev, this time with Lorin Maazel and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Third movement, Moderato
Tags: Hilary Hahn, Prokofiev violin concerto #1, San Francisco concert review, May 27, 2012