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Classical review: Hilary Hahn: Bach / Phantasm: Matthew Locke

Nothing the American violinist does is for show. Technique, feelings, heart and mind are intuitively fused, as Bach always demands

Hilary Hahn

Hilary Hahn

Matthew Locke

How did you spend the time when you were 17? Probably not making a flashy recording debut playing some of Bach’s music for solo violin. That was the achievement in 1997 of Hilary Hahn, who sailed through undaunted by music that requires tremendous technical, intellectual and emotional reserves and leaves a player with no place to hide. Now the American violinist is 38 (how time flies) and out comes an album featuring the pieces she missed out before. It’s incendiary and thrilling stuff, created by someone who has lived with Bach so regularly and deeply that his music seems part of her very being.

Her teenage Bach hurtled a bit and the top speeds here are still scary; the notes of…

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