Pure Korn- Pure Gold

Written by Stephen Brivati
Published: February 3, 2015 at 12:09 AM [UTC]

I've got my early morning routine well settled these days. I ensconce myself in the nearest convenience store to my place of work with decent coffee. Then I write email to my myriad legion of fan, IE a budgie living out somewhere near Clapham. Then I study Go for an hour or so to free the wind. To round all this off I listen to Hilary Hahn playing the Korngold concerto. Everyday...

Don't know much about this concerto, except it's a masterpiece and the performer can now, in my opinion, justifiably be called one of the all time great violinists.

First thing that springs to mind is how she can use a variety of vibratos and vibrato speeds to change the color and mood of whole sections of the work. Very few players can do this with such ease and control. And she even does a large chunk of double stopping with no vibrato.....

One thing that fascinates me about her playing is her uncompromising use of the fourth finger in the higher positions. She has one of the strongest and most flexible pinkie of any of today's players. Watch closely and see how she also supports it most of the time with the third finger. One of the secrets of her reliability.

However, as I watch this over and over I begin to feel that this may not always be the best way to do things. I don't think we can get around the fact that even with a finger like Hilary's the tone is infinitesimally thinner than if a third finger was used. After focusing on this point I have come to believe that there is a slight loss of meatiness and weight there even to the detriment of the musical line on more than one occasion. I think there are places, especially in the slow movement where, for the sake of preserving tonal power she would actually sound better with this change. I wondered if there was a slight desire to avoid any kind of sleazy slide that was behind this apparent tonal deficit. I have never had any trouble being sleazy but I could imagine this being anathema to the great lady. A point that does feel right to me is that last screaming high note of the piece. The summit has been reached ! Halleluyah! I'm done! Before those last notes on the g string saying 'so just go home...' I am pretty sure that note would be more effective with a third.

Anyway, I'm off to listen to it again coz I love it.

In the meantime by way of contrast, have a listen to our esteemed colleague Hartmut Lindemann imitating a string orchestra in this Bach Sarabande. I did warn him what would happen if he kept screwing the bow up too tight.

Cheers,
Buri