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Stories   >   Hilary Hahn: Paris makes 'textura - 2021 TOP 30 & 20 PICKS'

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Hilary Hahn: Paris makes 'textura - 2021 TOP 30 & 20 PICKS'

Posted: December 5, 2021
The categories in this year's roundup reflect textura's current focus on classical, opera, jazz, ambient, and New age; previous years' overviews included categories for EPs and compilations, but as the number of releases receiving coverage in those areas during 2021 was modest, releases selected for inclusion were absorbed into the three categories below. As in the past, choices were made in accordance with a simple principle: only those releases covered in 2021 were eligible, though a few 2020 releases appear that arrived too late to make it into last year's roundup. Here, then, are the recordings to which we repeatedly returned and which repeatedly rewarded that return. Excerpts from the original reviews, available in their complete form at textura's archives, have been included for the top selections in each category.
 
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. Released 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.
 
textura writes.....Hilary Hahn's 2021 album offers travel-starved listeners the vicarious pleasure of a Paris sojourn, with the violinist partnering with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and its Music Director Mikko Franck. One of the more commendable aspects of the release is its set-list: in place of predictable Paris-associated choices, Hahn and company present Poème by Parisian-born composer Ernest Chausson, Einojuhani Rautavaara's Deux Sérénades, and Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No.1, which received its first performance in the French capital in 1923. All three are treated to magnificent readings, but it's the inclusion of Deux Sérénades that makes Paris even more special, given that Rautavaara's final score was written for and premiered by Hahn with Franck and the OPRF in February 2019. Paris is, among many things, a sterling document of the powerful rapport the three-time Grammy Award-winning violinist has established with Franck and the OPRF; it also flatters Hahn's curatorial ability in featuring selections that reflect her artistic curiosity.
 
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