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Whistle Stopper - Schoenberg Violin Concerto Op.36/Sibelius Violin Concerto Op.47
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List Price: $16.98
Our Price: $11.99
Your Save: $ 4.99 ( 29% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: DG
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028947773467
Label: DG
Manufacturer: DG
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: DG
Release Date: 2008-04-08
Studio: DG
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent performance of the Schoenberg concerto
Comment: The Schoenberg concerto really supprises me. It is one of the most difficult concerto's to play, but Hillary Hahn plays it effortless, with a clear interpretation and with great musicality. To my opinion the Schoenberg concerto is one of her best performances so far. The performance of Sibelius is again technically excellent, but sounds sometimes a bit less on fire.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Ugly Music
Comment: I love atonal music and usually love Schoenberg's compositions but not this Violin Concerto-It was'nt interesting or enjoyable. If you want to hear a good atonal violin concerto listen to Alban Berg's.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Is Hilary that impressive?
Comment: Hillary's tone is usually rather thin and her playing is often not as colorful as you would like a violinist's playing to be. I won't say she is plain, but you will certainly not describe her playing as full of character or passionate. However, I like the way she played the third movement of the concerto composed by Jean Sibelius. It is not only fast enough, it is also rather impressive with accents at the right places. Unlike her first two movements, she had put in more emotion here and her tone is also richer throughout this movement - away form her usual rather thin tone. Unfortunately, at 0'33", her tempo is slightly out. Similar problem occurs at 03'40. From the momentum of the music, Hilary Hahn shouldn't have slowed down at these places unless she had some rhythm problem. The other violinist Midori did not have such problem. Midori is also a much more interesting violinist with more passion and feeling for this concerto. She is also able to make better use of what a string instrument can do to help conveying one's emotion. If one doesn't like Hilary's playing, it is understandable. Must the review written by someone here be deleted so many times just because he gave only one star for Hilary? The last deletion occurred on April 28, 2008 despite the vigorous complaints by this reviewer. What about some absurd reviews given for the pianist Yundi Li's recent CD Prokofiev Concerto no. 2 and some biased editorial reviews for his previous recordings? Three reviewers gave only one star for this outstanding CD Prokofiev Concerto no. 2 that had been picked by The New York Times as one of the best CD of the year 2007. Why doesn't Amazon delete these one-star-reviews for Yundi Li as well? Perhaps I should not come to this place any more.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hilary Rules
Comment: Hilary Hahn is a magnificently gifted fiddler. Her playing is incisive and beautifully thought through. It goes without saying that her technique is impeccable. The Schoenberg in this recording is the finest I've EVER heard, and I've heard it played many times since it is one of the greatest concertos for violin. Never have I heard a version this MUSICAL. It's depth and riches pour from Hahn's gigantic conception. This is a worthy disc many times over because of the performance here of the Schoenberg. The Sibelius is fine but too fast, especially in the third movement. I notice that modern players tend toward quicker tempi, perhaps understandable, yet consider how wonderful it would be to hear a contemporary violinist, especially one bearing the immense gifts Hilary Hahn brings, infuse this Sibelius masterpiece with the impetuous elegance of Oistrakh? One quakes at the thought. I was disappointed just a little with the Sibelius in this way - the captivating shape of the marvelously wrought lines, especially in the first movement, cannot but be blurred to merely a semblance of things at the speed here. Faster is not better, is not more modern, and in fact can be downright unsettling. That being said, dont hesitate to acquire this recording - another jewel from one of the great violinists at work today.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Schoenberg Violin Concerto
Comment: The first thing I want to say in regards to this recording is, thank you. I've waited for a new recording of the Schoenberg Violin Concerto for years and Hahn/Salonen/Swedish RSO present near perfection. The previous reviews already cover a lot of ground and I'll try not to repeat too much.
Schoenberg is feared, his music "unapproachable, sterile, mathmatical." I say no. I've been an active Schoenberg fan for nearly 20 years. I love Bach, I love Beethoven. Schoenberg in many regards is following in that tradition, his music an extension or continuation of what they and Brahms and Wagner were doing with chromatic harmony and the formal structure of their music. Schoenberg simply took it one step further. I think the difficulty listeners find when approaching Schoenberg is following the melodic line. In my opinion there is no doubt it is trickier than tonal writing at least because, for the most part, tonal music is what we are familiar with. It takes effort for the listener to get used to this but the reward is a world of sound not available in tonal music.
I don't get overly caught up in how Schoenberg used the 12 note system (and whatever label you choose to apply to it). I hear the music as personal expression. He was, to my ears, a romantic composer, looking for ever more harmonic color and a master of counterpoint. At his best his music could be described as "hyper-romantic." For two examples other than his Violin Concerto, his Piano Concerto packs plenty of emotion as he describes leaving 1930's Germany behind and adjusting to California and his new life, and his Variations for Orchestra (see the Karajan version) presents simply HUGE romanticism.
As for the recording at hand, transcending music theory and making music that speaks is its strength. No reason to expand on that subject as previous reviews have covered at length how well this recording succeeds on that level. I will voice a complaint about the recording which is that I wish the orchestra playing was a little closer in the mix, more of a close-mic sound. Schoenberg's orchestrations are rich and some of the inner detail of the part writing is lost here. But make no mistake, this is an otherwise beautiful sounding recording.
I look forward hearing the Sibelius but right now I just can't get past this wonderful Schoenberg. Bravo!
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Editorial Reviews:
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In another original pairing violinist Hilary Hahn brings together the familiar, highly commercial and long-awaited recording of the famous Sibelius Violin Concerto with the rarely performed Violin Concerto by Arnold Schoenberg. Hahn brings out the romantic qualities of Schoenberg's Concerto--known as one of the most difficult pieces in the violin repertoire--showing why it makes an ideal coupling with the Sibelius--"Hahn didn't merely play the notes, she passionately engaged with them." (The Daily Telegraph on a live performance of the Schoenberg Violin Concerto). As both an acclaimed Sibelius interpreter and a known advocate of 20th-century music in concert halls worldwide, Esa-Pekka Salonen is the ideal musical partner in this project.
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