Hilary Hahn Plays Bach: Sonatas 1 & 2; Partita 1

Hilary Hahn

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Hilary Hahn Plays Bach: Sonatas 1 & 2; Partita 1 Review

by James Manheim

A student of the last student of Ysaÿe, American violinist Hilary Hahn has played Bach's solo violin music since she was nine, and inaugurated her recording career seven years later with a recording of half the cycle of six, in 1997. That recording rightly won acclaim with its flawless technique and Apollonian lines straight out of the best of the French violin school. Uniquely, she has returned to complete the set 21 years later, and the results are marvelous. It's sometimes hard to pin down the ways in which Hahn's style has changed, but it has to do with a kind of inner relaxation, with a willingness to let the meter vary a bit and pick it up again in the longer line. The flawless tone is still there, but it's not so much an end in itself. It's not an accident that some of the graphics picture Hahn smiling, nor that her quite relevant notes to the album detail the long creative process that went into making it. Sample anywhere, but you could try the very beginning, the first movement of the Sonata for solo violin No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001, where Hahn takes just a bit of time, draws you in, and lets the rest of the movement flow from there. Decca's engineers do excellent work in a Bard College auditorium that one might not have picked as a venue for this. A superb release from one of the preeminent violinists of our time.

Track Listing

Sample		Title/Composer	Performer	Time	Stream
Sonata No. 1 in G Minor BWV 1001
	1	1. Adagio Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	04:44	Amazon
	2	2. Fuga (Allegro) Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	05:25	Amazon
	3	3. Siciliana Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	03:31	Amazon
	4	4. Presto Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	03:29	Amazon
Partita No. 1 in B Minor BWV 1002
	5	1. Allemande Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	07:21	Amazon
	6	2. Allemande - Double Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	04:12	Amazon
	7	3. Courante Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	03:41	Amazon
	8	4. Courante - Double Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	03:30	Amazon
	9	5. Sarabande Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	04:01	Amazon
	10	6. Sarabande - Double Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	03:34	Amazon
	11	7. Tempo di Bourrée Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	03:26	Amazon
	12	8. Tempo di Bourrée - Double Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	03:22	Amazon
Sonata No. 2 in A Minor BWV 1003
	13	1. Grave Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	04:44	Amazon
	14	2. Fuga Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	08:07	Amazon
	15	3. Andante Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	06:32	Amazon
	16	4. Allegro Johann Sebastian Bach	Hilary Hahn	05:49	Amazon