From Hilary to Bill.(Hilary Hahn)

OF the many young violinists before the public today, Hilary Hahn may be the most impressive. Last season, she gave a recital in Carnegie Hall that was a model of musicianship. It included a Bach partita, that composer being central to the young lady's career, thought, and satisfaction.

She has now recorded the Bach concertos, with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra conducted by Jeffrey Kahane. This is a distinguished recording--found on Deutsche Grammophon--with Hahn's playing intelligent and disciplined, as usual. But it is a little brusque: a little cold, a bit mechanical. Hahn could stand to loosen somewhat, and she probably will, as she moves beyond her 23 years. But a certain inflexibility is preferable to the thoughtless meanderings that other musicians commit.

* Hahn may also be heard in the concerto by Edgar Meyer, along with that by an earlier American composer, Samuel Barber. Who is Meyer? He is on my mind because he recently participated in a concert by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center--as both double bassist and composer. He is one of the world's top performers on his instrument, and a composer of widening reputation. Meyer is not the first double bassist to achieve a greater glory: I think of the conductors Serge Koussevitzky and Zubin Mehta.

Meyer wrote his violin concerto for Hahn in 1999, and she recorded it that same year. (The disc comes from Sony.) Meyer is known for his use of bluegrass and other American strains, and these are plainly heard in the concerto. Much of it may strike some as simplistic and quasi-popular. I would call it simple rather than simplistic, however, and admirable for that. The concerto bears some kinship to Barber's, actually, and even more to the music of Aaron Copland. You can hear a little of Appalachian Spring in it, and of The Tender Land, and of Rodeo. What is it about American music that so speaks of the prairie? Or is that only our Coplandesque variety?

Almost certainly, the Meyer Concerto will never have a better advocate than the woman for whom it was commissioned, Hilary Hahn. She displays her purity of tone, and sure technique, and fantastic musical instincts--instincts that are buttressed by first-rate training.

On that program of the Chamber Music Society, Meyer's Trio No. 1 for Violin, Cello, and Double Bass was played (with the composer chipping in as performer too, of course). On Deutsche Grammophon, his Quintet may be heard, recorded by the Emerson String Quartet (with Meyer, once more, joining in). This work provides a neat example of Meyer's art. The opening movement is folk-like and gently lulling--almost minimalist in stretches. The second movement is jazzy and bluesy, something to set toes tapping. The third movement is mournful, and maybe just slightly Eastern (as in the Orient, not New England). The last movement is fast and squirmy: a typical closer for Meyer, and others.

How will this composer develop? It will be interesting to watch. Now 43, he is known as the American "roots" man, a miner of our musical heritage, a creator of pleasant hybrids. He can be knocked for being somewhat kitschy and sentimental, but there are worse things to be knocked for, and--as I frequently remind people--it is no sin to write music that people smile at and enjoy.