Hilary Hahn Releases Jennifer Higdon Concerto on DG

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Deutsche Grammophon Releases a Recording of Hilary Hahn Performing Jennifer Higdon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Violin Concerto

CD and Download Available on September 21, 2010

Grammy-winning violinist Hilary Hahn will release her new recording on Deutsche Grammophon, Hilary Hahn plays Higdon & Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos, on September 21, 2010. This all-new recording demonstrates her continued commitment to exploring new works while simultaneously embracing established masterworks. The disc opens with the world-premiere recording of Jennifer Higdon’s Violin Concerto, which was written for Hahn. The album is completed with the beloved Tchaikovsky concerto, which provides both contrast and context for the Higdon concerto.

This is not the first album on which Hahn explores unique pairings. Her 2008 release, Schoenberg & Sibelius, not only debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Classical Traditional Chart, but also won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Soloist with Orchestra. Instead of acting as an advocate for an existing work, Hahn gives the world-premiere recording of a work that was commissioned for her and tailored to exploit her many particular gifts. The concerto, with intricate ensemble writing as well, is a showpiece not only for Hahn but also for the orchestra. In this recording Hahn is joined by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko.

The pairing of these seemingly disparate works may seem strange at first glance, but they are actually quite connected for Hahn. “One may ask why I wished to present the Higdon and Tchaikovsky together,” states Hahn. “For me the answer is rather simple. I believe that these full-scale, grandly conceived concertos, both connected for me by my time at the Curtis Institute, illuminate each other. While they come from different centuries and compositional worlds, they share a great many qualities: lyrical delicacy, a brooding gentility, energetic abandon, and a fine maturity of spirit. Placed back to back, they suggest the range of musical possibilities open to the violin in the early twenty-first century.”

In 2010 Hahn has already performed the Higdon concerto with the orchestras of Indianapolis, Toronto, Baltimore, Nashville, Detroit and Dallas in addition to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Upcoming US performances with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra are scheduled for February 14, 2011 in Philadelphia and February 15, 2011 at Carnegie Hall. Hahn will perform the Tchaikovsky concerto in Ogden and Salt Lake City, UT; Las Vegas, NV; Salem, OR; Kansas City, MO; and Los Angeles, CA – all throughout the remainder of 2010.

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