I saw Hilary Hahn in person, and now my life is complete!

Sigh. She must have been like 5 feet tall -- this tiny girl who looks like she's still 12 with skin like a baby (in reality, she's 30). And really, she looked much younger than she does in any of her (photoshopped) publicity pictures! But her music? So incredibly mature.

I think a lot of violinists tend to pull out the more "conservative" side when they know they are being recorded (studio recording a CD; a concert where they are being video/audio taped) because their one-time performance will be on permanent record... but then they free up in live performances when they aren't as permanently bound. I'd have to say this was true here!

I remember seeing HH's Prokofiev on youtube and being turned off by it. It was too fast, too cold, and I didn't like it. But tonight - it was awesome :) Incredible beyond words! The opening was eerily beautiful, with Prokofiev's light orchestration, and HH's bow never ending through the entire page-long melody. I wonder how she has amazing bow control like that. This was bundled with beautiful shifts, perfect intonation, and an amazing build up of intensity. Then when the music transitioned through Prokofiev's typical military-like (very Shostakovich-like) passages, HH owned it, ladies and gentlemen. Fantastic articulation, bow control, left hand clarity, and perfect coordination. The technically dense passages? Difficult runs? I heard every single note. Not that I expected any less from HH, but seeing it happen right in front of my eyes made it even more unbelievable.

She did miss 2 notes in the entire concerto (:P), but that made the performance all the more human. Her sound had so much depth in it (more so than what any recording could reproduce), and it seemed like she captured all the pain and emotion in the world, expressed it through her violin, and have it resonate through Symphony Hall. I've usually associated HH with clarity and piercingly perfect intonation/technique (almost machine-like), but I'd have to add expressiveness onto that list.

One thing though - her violin didn't seem to project too well... I was wondering if it was where I was sitting, but then again, all other violin soloists sounded just fine. Even Yo Yo Ma's cello sounded fine. But HH sounded a bit covered up and her sound also didn't seem to carry too well. de Burgos seemed to be shushing the orchestra at multiple points as well. Perhaps it was that Prokofiev's orchestration got too brassy and massive at times and/or the BSO is way larger than what Prokofiev's original orchestration called for. Or maybe it is where I was sitting, or it's HH's violin not liking to project (though it's great for close-up mic recordings). Who knows!

She was pickier than the other BSO soloists so far. At the dress rehearsals, soloists seemed to just get a good run-through the piece, and walk off. HH had a few minutes of discussion with the conductor at the end of each movement, and certain passages were rehearsed additionally. She picked on tempi changes and articulation, in particular. The tempi changes, though, I noticed that there were some off-moments. I think HH had a clear tempo in her mind (not always the "typical" tempo most people play Prokofiev at), but wasn't together with the BSO, and those got fixed one by one. And at the end, she turned around to thank the orchestra for being amazing before she left stage, which I think is unusual (but nice!) as well.

Another point - when I've seen her videos, the way she moved always bothered me because it looked really unnatural, for some reason. Well, I'll say that this wasn't the case at all. She looked totally at ease, she took advantage of the humongous space given to her, and it all looked so natural. Everything from immobile during difficult passages to literally getting bouncy when the music called for it. It really added to the music, rather than distract from it.

Well, anyway, I will write more about the rest of this concert later (Malcolm Lowe in Scheherazade was really incredible as well!!).