When Robert Schumann heard Chopin's Opus 1, he immediately wrote in the
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, "Hats off, gentlemen, a Genius." After hearing violinist Hilary Hahn last night at Sunset Center in Carmel, I know how he must have felt. The occasion was the Carmel Music Society's second concert of the season, and during this concert Ms. Hahn appeared with collaborative pianist Natalie Zhu.
Only nineteen years old, Ms. Hahn has it all. We heard glorious soaring tone, with the most exquisite control of intonation and vibrato, plus we heard a mature musicianship (incredible for one so young) capable of the subtlest dynamics and shaping of phrases. This is not playing you are likely to forget.
The program consisted of four sonatas - two by Brahms, one by Debussy and the Bach unaccompanied Sonata in A Minor. I was most looking forward to hearing the Brahms and Debussy sonatas, rather than the Bach, because in many violinists' hands, the unaccompanied suites and sonatas can sound like labored, academic exercises.
Ms. Hahn's Bach Sonata was a startling revelation. Every phrase, every note, every nuance was there with an astounding clarity. The mechanics of playing the violin receded into the background, as she effortlessly navigated her way through the most difficult contrapuntal and double-stop passages. The most interesting aspect of her Bach playing was that although she made this extremely difficult work look and sound easy, her playing was never glib. We got the impression she was completely committed to the music and this gave her playing an air of extraordinary authority. It is difficult to image a better performance of this work, and I never wanted it to end.
In the other works on the program, we heard this same magnificent technical control and superb musicianship, but if they paled by comparison with the Bach it was due to the nature of the collaboration with pianist Natalie Zhu.
I had an interesting conversation during the 1960s with pianist Artur Balsam, who played regularly with Nathan Milstein for over thirty years. Balsam mentioned that during a recent ten-day period he had appeared twice at Carnegie Hall as a collaborative pianist in sonata recitals, on one occasion with violinist Joseph Fuchs and on the other with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. When he played with Fuchs, he was treated as an absolute equal, both played from score and the lid of the piano was all the way up. During the second recital it was made clear at the first rehearsal, that Rostropovich was the star and would play everything from memory, the piano lid was to be down, and Balsam's playing was to remain discreetly in the background.
It was this "star" attitude that marred the performance of the three piano and violin sonatas (the two Brahms Sonatas were originally published as
Sonaten fúr Klavier und Violine, thus in the original edition "Piano" came before "Violin" and both parts are absolutely equal). All the signs were present at this concert that Hilary Hahn was to be considered the "star" and Natalie Zhu the "accompanist." Zhu's name did not appear on the cover of the printed program, Hahn played from memory while Zhu played from score, the piano lid was down, Hahn came out alone on one occasion for bows at the end of the program and only Hahn received a bouquet of roses at the end of the recital.
And, of course, the music suffered somewhat. Ms. Zhu's playing was always discreetly off in the distance and a little difficult to hear, even when she had the principal melodies or passages of greater interest than the violin. This is no reflection on the musical or technical abilities of Ms. Zhu, but rather that the "star" mindset predisposed this recital to be a star vehicle for Ms. Hahn rather than a collaboration of two fine young musicians playing a sonata recital. All of us on the Monterey Peninsula can remember a previous offering from the Carmel Music Society several years ago, a sonata recital by Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax, where the recognized equality of the two artists made the event so special. On this occasion, Ms. Zhu was never given a chance for this kind of equality.
The Debussy Sonata was the most successful of the piano and violin sonatas, and it demonstrated once again how lovely and how varied are the sounds that Ms. Hahn can produce so effortlessly. The Debussy also afforded Ms. Zhu an opportuntity to play more expansively, and this added immeasurably to the success of the performance.
An enthusiastic audience heard three encores. The first was Schubert's
Erlkönig, in an arrangement by Ernst for solo violin. This was a hair-raising performance that gave further proof of Ms. Hahn's astonishing abilities. With Ms. Zhu she played two additional encores, Debussy's "Maid with the Flaxen Hair" and an arrangement of the Siciliano from Bach's Flute Sonata in E-flat Major.
The Carmel Music Society's next event will be pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet on Tuesday, January 11, 2000.
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