By Serge-Paul Carrasco on March 1, 2009

Anne-Sophie Mutter and Hilary Hahn at the San Francisco Symphony

(E) Qu’il fait bon de vivre à San Francisco! How nice is it to live in San Francisco! In less than three months, classical music lovers had the great opportunity to listen to both Hilary Hahn and Anne-Sophie Mutter at the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Hilary Hahn performed during the Thanksgiving week in 2008, the Tchaikovsky’s Violin concerto like no one before! And, Anne-Sophie Mutter, one more time, surprised us by performing the same week contemporary music from Sofia Gubaidulina, her second Violin Concerto, and classical music from Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. One person who attended Hilary’s performance told me that “she was incredibly into it”. Another person who attended Anne-Sophie’s performance told me that “she has been waited for six years to see her back in San Francisco”! I believe that Anne-Sophie’s performance of Mendelssohn last Saturday was better than one of her two CD recordings of that concerto. Somebody asked me how the young Hilary differs from the experienced Anne-Sophie and I replied without thinking: Hilary plays with her heart. Anne-Sophie plays with her soul! But it is just a question of time before Hilary plays with her soul and I cannot wait for that. What makes a musician unique is the personality of her interpretation. After mastering challenging techniques and making the violin playing a full spectrum of emotions, a great musician obviously “put” herself into the music. Anne-Sophie can move us anywhere from slow movements expressing deep feelings to fast movements with rich energy. She can lead us anywhere where she wants. She is bringing us a lot of contemporary music from Duteilleux, Gubaidulina, Previn, and others while amazing us with refreshed and creative interpretations of classics such as the Four Seasons. I wish she will play more Vivaldi and Paganini. Hilary will still impress us with her Bach, investigate new composers and expand her repertoire. And, I am hoping that she will record soon the Tchaikovsky concerto! In the meantime, enjoy the following clips from some YouTube classical lovers:

Hilary Hahn – The making of the Bach Violin concertos with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra:

Hilary Hahn – Playing Bach’s Partita No. 2 Ciaccona:

Hilary Hahn – Playing Paganini’s Caprice No. 24:

Anne-Sophie Mutter – Vivaldi Four Seasons – Summers with the Mutter Virtuosi Ensemble. Fasten your seat belts before listening to it!

Anne-Sophie Mutter – Anne-Sophie’s interview about her latest recording of the Bach Concerto played (like the Four Seasons) with the Trondheim Soloists and the Gubaidulina’s In Tempus Praesens Concerto played with the London Symphony Orchestra: