hilary hahn..violinist

To each his own. I'd take Hahn over Bell any day. He's florid and affected, where she is straightforward and direct. Both characterizations are gross oversimplifications, by the way, but that gives you some idea of what makes them distinct--and distinctive. If you're into Romantic warhorses, she may not be your cup of tea.

Personally, I like her Bach, her Beethoven, and her Stravinsky (which may be the definitive version, by default). And I think she has at least one recording out on 5.1 SACD.

When Heifitz's widow first heard Maxim Vengerov play, she gave him Heifitz's bow.

She sums up my feelings.

I had the chance to meet her when she played with the Cincinnati symphoney a few years ago. I also had her sign one of her cd's that is nice she is very good and we will see how her sound matures as she gets more experence.

I was impressed by all the praise, so I bought her SACD (which won a prize) of the Brahms concerto. The way this multichannel disc was mastered is so terrible that I am not sure that I can give a fair evaluation. (She is recorded equally in Left and Right Channels, as if the recording were stereo, and is missing from the center). I bought another Hahn SACD, the Bach double concertos, and this one is mastered better. However the playing also let me down a bit. I have these Bach concertos on a CD that I keep in my car which I copied, and I don't even know who is playing, but I like it better.

She is obviously good, but her playing just does not impact me the way some other performers do. For comparison, I dredged up an old Decca CD of the Tchaikovsky concerto played by a young (in 1982) Korean woman, Kyung Wha Chung, and to my ear she is/was superior. Tops in my opinion was David Oistrach, particularly for the Tchaikovsky. My old Angel LP is just about worn out. Itzhak Perlman, before his fame and fortune set in, was great.

But she is young. We will see where she goes.

I beleive like others above that it's too early to tell about Hahn. She has been benefitted by great modern recording ( at least in Redbook ).Both her Barber/Mayer cd and her Elgar cd are good though not stunning.Speaking of the Brahms, I was recommended last week to an unknown to me artist Erica Morini,whose 1956 recording of the Brahms & Tchaikovsky concertos was jaw dropping.Look for this cd on Westminster.