The Philharmonic, which Dudamel will lead extra often subsequent season earlier than formally endeavor his duties, is already exhibiting indicators of his affect. And he collaborated seamlessly with the night’s soloist, the violinist Hilary Hahn, the orchestra’s artist in residence.
A musician of poise and rounded tone, Hahn proved within the Ginastera that she will make absolutely anything sound stunning. In her interpretation, the piece shed its acrid angularity. She folded trills, stops and candy harmonics into unbroken strains, and when she harmonized with herself, she utilized the plushness and persistence acquainted from her Bach recordings.
The primary motion’s six études had been a showcase for Hahn’s style, in addition to for her technical talent. She demonstrated ease in fistfuls of chords, silky thirds, gently seesawing arpeggios and glowing harmonics. Her Adagio was warmly spacious, and she or he dashed off the fiendish Perpetuum Cell with a contact of rawness that seemed like an interpretive selection somewhat than an impact of the breakneck pace.
For his half, Dudamel summoned hectoring drama and elemental energy within the Ginastera, but additionally subtlety. The harmonics étude, which exploits the ethereality of celesta, harp and glockenspiel, had an eerie ambivalence that hovered between fairy magic and one thing extra sinister. The research of quarter tones occupied a haunting, liminal state.
The composure that made Hahn’s Ginastera an interesting train to find magnificence in unlikely locations shortchanged the aptitude of Sarasate’s “Carmen” Fantasy, through which gildings on the sultry melodies of Bizet’s beloved opera invite showmanship. Extra rhythmic alacrity would have propelled strains ahead. In melodic passages just like the Habanera, Hahn turned just a little singsongy, however the “Tra la la” part, with its languorous flirtations, suited the best way she sits again and luxuriates in her sound. Her encore, the Loure from Bach’s Partita No. 3, likewise had a stunning, long-limbed high quality.