After the concert, after the encore, there was still more business to take care of when Hilary Hahn appeared with the New York Philharmonic on Thursday.
She returned to the David Geffen Hall stage, accompanied by Deborah Borda, the orchestra's former leader, and Gary Ginstling, the current one. They had to make an announcement: Hahn, 44, a star violinist for four decades, had received the Avery Fisher Prize, a $100,000 honor that rewards good citizens of classical music who have complemented artistic excellence with lasting contributions to the world. field.
Those contributions are varied but often affirm the vitality of this art form. Violinist Midori, the 2001 winner, tours as a traveling artist in residence, working with young musicians in small towns far from musical capitals like Boston and New York; 2017 winner flutist Claire Chase is a passionate educator working on a decades-long project to modernize her instrument's repertoire; and cellist Yo-Yo Ma (1978)—well, what isn't he doing?
Even as a teenager, Hahn was much more than a prodigy. She has always made herself accessible to fans, whether by entertaining the longest autograph lines or letting the public participate in her practice sessions on social media. (If you find #100daysofpractice on Instagram or TikTok, she started that.) She has been a prolific commissioner who insists on recording the works she premieres. And her community involvement, like her “Bring Your Own Baby” concerts for parents and their babies, is as endearing as it is genuinely valuable.
If only there were more than just a display of all this at the Philharmonic, where Hahn is the artist-in-residence this season. Thursday's performance was the first in a series that will include one more subscription program, an evening of Bach solo works and a Nightcap show with New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck.
Hahn has done much more in the same role at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where he has resided since the 2021-22 season. There he has collaborated with local youth initiatives and has revived his “Bring Your Own Baby” concert. His Thursday encore, Steven Banks' “Through My Mother's Eyes,” was written for his time in Chicago.
In the Philharmonic we have Hahn as a performer. Which, to be fair, is quite a bit. Her account of Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto exemplified the golden age richness and astonishing technique that have long made her a towering figure in a crowded field. She handles her instrument like a great soprano; she handles her voice, with a muscular lyricism and a luminously penetrating sound capable of reaching the farthest seats with a whisper.
There was a sense of that deceptive softness in a whistling trill near the end of the piece, and as she collaborated generously with members of the orchestra: her strumming matched the wandering melody of Anthony McGill's clarinet; Her muted brilliance added new color to the opening theme as she flowed from Robert Langevin's flute.
Elsewhere in the concert, the orchestra plays a largely supporting role. And it was sensitively balanced but distinct enough under the baton of Jakub Hrusa, a guest conductor who tends to tame and enliven the forceful sound of the Philharmonic, with a feeling for dramatic form that corresponds to his recent appointment to the Royal Opera podium London House. .
The ensemble was larger and more prominent in the evening's opening work, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's 1898 “Ballade,” which had its philharmonic debut Thursday. Some in the audience may have been unfamiliar with this chronically underprogrammed composer, but his seductive chromatic score had much to please them: Brahms' lush orchestration and Tchaikovsky's romantic gestures, tightly packaged with the breathlessness of a concert overture by Dvorak.
Naturally, a greater showcase for the performers was Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, a beloved reinvention of the 20th-century baroque concerto grosso. In a work obsessively precise in its construction, a love letter to the sonata and arched forms that unfolds like a roll call of virtuosity, the Philharmonic and Hrusa were freely organic and sounded party-goers, with smiles accompanying the parodic passages of the Intermezzo interrotto of the fourth movement. .
It was moving for Bartok to follow Hahn's award announcement. Because while everyday musicians may not have the glamor of a star soloist, they are no less essential to the ecosystem. Not surprisingly, McGill, the Philharmonic's solo clarinet, also has the Avery Fisher Award.
New York Philharmonic
This program repeats through Saturday at David Geffen Hall, Manhattan; nyphil.org.
