Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Hilary Hahn does Schönberg


Currently listening to Hillary Hahn's new recording of Schoenberg's violin concerto (composed in 1935-36). When Schoenberg wrote it, famous violinist Jascha Heifetz declared that it could only be played when violinists started to grow 6 fingers. It's never become part of the standard repertoire, but a few later violinists have managed to wrap their hands around it.

You can listen to some of Hahn's version at her myspace page. (NOTE: At some point clicks start to appear for copyright reasons). This is the andante, so I presume it's not the most difficult part of the concerto. It does get pretty wild towards the end though.

The concerto is also an example of 12-tone music that's actually very accessible.... or FAIRLY accessible at least. It reminds me a bit of Bernard Herrmann's Hitchcock scores and parts of Howard Shore's David Cronenberg scores. I like it very much. There's also a Sibelius thingie on the disc, but I haven't gotten round to listening to it yet, I have the Schoenberg on repeat.

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