Elgar: Violin Concerto; Vaughan Williams: the Lark Ascending.(Sound Recording Review)

Elgar: Violin Concerto; Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending. Hillary Hahn, violin; Sir Colin Davis, London Symphony Orchestra. DG B00003026-02.

I have to admit that it's hard for me to remain attentive through music that I don't particularly like. The Elgar Violin Concerto has been popular among the public for nearly a century, so there's no doubting its quality, but I have never found it very compelling, especially not the first movement, which seems to me to drift all over the place. There is a sweet second movement, true, and things do finally come together in the last movement, but it seems a long time coming.

Anyway, this is meant as no disrespect to Ms. Hahn's violin playing, for which I have the utmost respect and admiration. I just don't know that there is a lot she can do with something that hasn't been done better before. The "better" in this case would be Nigel Kennedy's EMI recording with Vernon Handley and the LPO from 1984, in which Kennedy's violin almost literally "sings" through the music. It is this greater expressive quality of Kennedy's that almost (I say "almost") makes me appreciate the work for the intimate, biographical outpouring of personal spirit it is said to be. Nevertheless, Ms. Hahn gives it her all, and while the tempos may seem a bit hurried, they convey the soul of the artists involved, both composer and performer.

Coupled with the Concerto is Ralph Vaughan Williams' "The Lark Ascending," a work for which I have a most heartfelt affection. It is one of the loveliest ...