The "
Eclipse" referred to in the title was the one caused by the COVID-19 pandemic; violinist
Hilary Hahn, for that reason and others, called a hiatus to her career, but she was persuaded to see this album, recorded in a couple of different locations, through to completion. Her notes to this Deutsche Grammophon release delve into her state of mind in some detail, also exploring the technical challenges of the rarely played Violin Concerto, Op. 30, of
Alberto Ginastera, a kind of modernist-
Paganini bag of tricks. As it happens,
Hahn transcends all her difficulties in the way she so often does. She is best known as a
Bach specialist, and if she delivers rather Bachian readings of
Dvořák,
Ginastera, and
Sarasate, well, that is not a bad thing (and neither is the utterly diverse nature of the program). The
Ginastera is delivered with steely perfection, and while one may be taken aback to hear
Sarasate that is not over the top in the 19th century virtuoso manner,
Hahn's reading is an elegant and entirely valid one. Her rapport with conductor
Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the
Frankfurt Radio Symphony is palpable. Whatever mid-career blues
Hahn may have experienced, they are hard to detect in the finished product here. ~ James Manheim