Paganini, Spohr: Violin Concertos / Hillary Hahn

November 2006 - BBC Music Magazine **** “There have been a number of fine accounts of Paganini's First Concerto down the years… Hilary Hahn plays the score complete and with such effortless command that the listener might be fooled into thinking that it really isn’t all that difficult… in Spohr's A minor Concerto... her exquisite shaping of Spohr's melodies and technical nonchalance pay special dividends. ...this is easily the finest version of this once-popular work to have emerged since Zukerman's long-deleted account of the early 1970s...”

November 2006 - Gramophone Magazine “After nearly 200 years Paganini still poses considerable challenges but Hilary Hahn's superior technique surmounts them easily… And Hahn's musicianship is of a high order; we hear the Concerto not as the patchwork of showy tricks and memorable tunes it often seems, but as a well crafted, unified work. In the Spohr, Hahn plays the recitative sections with splendid, bold expressiveness, and in the brilliant final movement shows a winning combination of strength, delicacy and lyricism. But I'd take issue with her very slow speed in the first aria. It's an outstanding disc, however, and can only enhance Hahn's reputation.”

Price: $15.98