Elgar: Violin Concerto; Vaughan Williams: the Lark Ascending.

Elgar: Violin Concerto; Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending. Hillary Hahn, violin; Sir Colin Davis, London Symphony Orchestra. DG B00003026-02.

I have to admit that it's hard for me to remain attentive through music that I don't particularly like. The Elgar Violin Concerto has been popular among the public for nearly a century, so there's no doubting its quality, but I have never found it very compelling, especially not the first movement, which seems to me to drift all over the place. There is a sweet second movement, true, and things do finally come together in the last movement, but it seems a long time coming.

Anyway, this is meant as no disrespect to Ms. Hahn's violin playing, for which I have the utmost respect and admiration. I just don't know that there is a lot she can do with something that hasn't been done better before. The "better" in this case would be Nigel Kennedy's EMI recording with Vernon Handley and the LPO from 1984, in which Kennedy's violin almost literally "sings" through the music. It is this greater expressive quality of Kennedy's that almost (I say "almost") makes me appreciate the work for the intimate, biographical outpouring of personal spirit it is said to be. Nevertheless, Ms. Hahn gives it her all, and while the tempos may seem a bit hurried, they convey the soul of the artists involved, both composer and performer.

Coupled with the Concerto is Ralph Vaughan Williams' "The Lark Ascending," a work for which I have a most heartfelt affection. It is one of the loveliest pieces of music ever written, and one of the staples of the repertoire for calming the frayed nerves of the weary traveler at the end of a long day. Ms. Hahn conveys the beauty of the lark's upward flight with dignity and compassion, but, like the Elgar, it didn't touch me the way Hugh Bean's celebrated performance with Sir Adrian Boult and the Philharmonia does (EMI, 1967). Still, if you're looking for the two pieces of music combined on a single disc, this is a disc to consider.

There was a time when I thought DG's sound was hard, bright, and edgy, but now it appears their sound is overly warm and smooth. A quick comparison of both the EMI discs mentioned above with the new DG makes the point. The EMI's have greater transparency, greater dynamic impact, and greater depth to the stereo image. No one is likely to find DG's sound lacking, mind you, except dedicated audiophiles, who will probably not care for the EMIs, either, so it may be a moot point.

A final note on the packaging: If you count the back cover picture of Ms. Hahn, the inside cover picture, the outside booklet cover, the back booklet cover, and the seven additional pictures of the artist inside the booklet, you will find eleven pictures of her. Now, I don't deny she is a lovely young lady and pleasant to look at, but it does seem like overkill, a certain waste of space that might otherwise have gone to more informational text about the composers, the artists, or the works involved. Oh, well; I suppose marketing is marketing.