Choose artist...
Home   >   Projects

Projects

Artist: Hilary Hahn
Projects per page:
Hilary Hahn:

Eugene Ysaye - Six Sonatas For Solo Violin

Three-time GRAMMY® Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn has announced her latest album with Deutsche Grammophon: a recording of Eugène Ysaÿe’s Six Sonatas for Violin Solo, op. 27, to be released July 14 on CD, a 2-LP gatefold vinyl edition, and in digital formats including a Dolby Atmos version. Composed beginning in 1923, these six sonatas are among the supreme feats of technical virtuosity in the violin repertoire. Hahn’s interpretations, recorded last fall in the lead-up to this year’s centenary, see her come full circle as a direct musical descendant of Ysaÿe himself. 

“Just as Eugène Ysaÿe was inspired by Bach to write these six sonatas—and in doing so set a crucial milestone in the evolution of the violin—so too am I inspired by Ysaÿe to continually grow as an artist, to pour all of myself into this music and to commit myself fully to the pieces appearing on this recording,” says Hahn. “The sounds you hear aren’t just the product of the notes on the page, but of a centuries-long artistic lineage that has led me to this moment in time—me, standing on my own two feet with just my two hands, a violin, a bow, and four strings.”

A gifted violinist, conductor, and composer, Eugène Ysaÿe is widely considered to be the first modern violinist. As a performer, he embraced and defined the techniques of his day, revolutionizing the ways in which technical prowess and expressiveness could enhance one another without compromise; his mastery of rubato alone put him leaps and bounds ahead of other violinists of his time. A champion of new music, Ysaÿe received dedications from luminaries such as Franck, Debussy, Saint-Saëns, and Chausson. He was also an in-demand interpreter of repertoire works, breathing new life into works from the Classical and Early-Romantic era.

Hilary Hahn:

Eclipse

Hilary Hahn’s latest album, Eclipse, celebrates the power of authenticity. Recorded with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and its Music Director (2014-2021), Andrés Orozco-Estrada, it sees the triple Grammy-winning violinist deliver interpretations of three works charged with universal emotions yet rooted in their composers’ musical heritage: Dvorák’s Violin Concerto, a tour de force from the Czech composer’s “Slavic period,” Ginastera’s Violin Concerto, a strikingly original 20th-century gem, and Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy, among the greatest virtuoso showpieces of all time. “This recording tells stories I didn’t understand until I returned to the stage after a long hiatus: the elation of coming into one’s own, the declaration of an artistic identity, and what it means to regain your native language through music,” says Hahn. Eclipse is set for release by Deutsche Grammophon on 7 October 2022 on CD, 2 LPs, and digitally, including a Dolby Atmos version.

The album marks a series of musical milestones for the violinist. She has long loved the works it contains and discovered fresh insights and details of expression as she recorded each of them for the first time. Eclipse also reflects Hahn’s close collaboration with the musicians of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (in their home city and on tour) and her extensive partnership with Maestro Orozco-Estrada. Above all, it documents her return to recording, following a year-long sabbatical and many additional months of artistic solitude.
 

Hilary Hahn:

Paris

Hilary Hahn's new recording pays homage to the rich cultural heritage of a city that has been close to her heart throughout her career. Set for international release by Deutsche Grammophon on 5 March 2021, Paris sees the American violinist resume her productive partnership with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and its Music Director, Mikko Franck. The three-time Grammy Award-winner's album presents the world premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara's Deux Sérénades, commissioned by Mikko Franck. It also includes Ernest Chausson's Poème and Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No.1, which received its first performance in the French capital in 1923.

Hilary Hahn:

6 PARTITAS BY ANTON GARCIA ABRIL

Following the widely celebrated release of Hilary Hahn Plays Bach on Decca Classics last fall, Hilary Hahn returns with a world premiere recording of Antón García Abril's 6 Partitas, commissioned by Hahn for solo violin-her first-ever solo commission and her first of a set of pieces from a single composer.  Each movement has a different theme, displays its own personality, and is deeply tied to the performer for whom the work was written-so much so that García Abril chose to name the movements after Hahn in acrostic: HEART, IMMENSITY, LOVE, ART, REFLECTIVE, YOU.

There is a longstanding tradition of great composers writing six polyphonic works for the violin. Perhaps due to the creativity that arises when a composer is limited to a single unaccompanied instrument, and the challenge of creating a set of diverse but cohesive material within that framework, these pieces rank amongst the most iconic, progressive compositions in the repertoire. Hahn commissioned these 6 Partitas from García Abril both to continue this tradition as well as to amplify this important contemporary composer outside of his home country. Likewise, García Abril found inspiration in Hahn's technical proficiency and interpretational skill, writing her personality and mastery of the violin into the music itself.

Hilary Hahn:

Plays Bach - Sonatas I & II, Partita I

When Hilary Hahn plays Bach came out on Sony in 1997, critics were astounded that a performer would choose solo Bach for her debut album; they were further confounded by her elegant approach to this music's technical and interpretive challenges at such a young age. Bach expert Nicholas Anderson wrote in BBC Music Magazine at the time, "Bach's six unaccompanied solos - three each of partitas and sonatas - have long been regarded as the pinnacle of violin writing and the most elusive of goals for the aspiring performer... Hahn's affection for Bach's music becomes apparent at almost every turn; and the concluding movement of the C major Sonata is a tour de force. I long to hear more." Stereo Review wrote, "I would go so far as to say that I've never heard this legendary, impossible piece of music played on a higher level, technically and musically, than it is on Hahn's debut CD. This is simply a magnificent performance, completely true in all its parts and possessed of a depth and wisdom that belie the performer's age. Unlike most of the violinists who play this music, she is truly its master, and that frees her to play it with soul."

Now 38, she completes her recording of the Bach sonatas and partitas for solo violin in an album that will be released on Decca Classics on October 5, 2018. The new album includes the first partita and first and second sonatas.

Hilary Hahn:

Retrospective

An artist portrait curated by Hilary Hahn herself, Retrospective features recordings from albums she made as a Deutsche Grammophon artist as well as almost 30 minutes of new, unreleased material from a live concert of Mozart's Violin Sonata K. 379 and new recordings of three tracks from her Encores album. Commissioned through Hahn's social media platforms, the Retrospective artwork and packaging were designed using portraits submitted by her fans. 

Hilary Hahn:

Mozart 5, Vieuxtemps 4 - Violin Concertos

After touring together for many years, Paavo Järvi joins Hilary Hahn's on her new DG album, Mozart 5, Vieuxtemps 4 - Violin Concertos. This is Hahn's first recording with The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Paavo Järvi and is the violinist's first orchestral offering since her 2010 pairing of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto and Jennifer Higdon's Pulitzer-prize winning violin concerto, which was written for Hahn. With this new album, she returns to core violin repertoire on the heels of the Grammy-win for 'In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores,' Mozart 5, Vieuxtemps 4 are two concertos that have been part of Hahn's repertoire since she was ten years old. 

Hilary Hahn:

In 27 Pieces

Throughout her career, Hilary Hahn has been an advocate for new music - most notably commissioning a concerto by Edgar Meyer and a Pulitzer Prize-winning concerto by Jennifer Higdon. Her recent album, Silfra, was a genre-bending experiment with prepared-pianist Hauschka. Prior to that, she released an album of sonatas by Charles Ives. More than ten years ago, Hahn began her most ambitious project, "In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores," to expand and enrich the violin repertoire. She commissioned more than two dozen composers to write short-form pieces for acoustic violin and piano and toured these new works internationally over the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons in countries such as Turkey, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Austria and Spain.