Hilary Hahn: Violin Mixtape

“I think the playlist is a throwback to the mixtape,” Hilary Hahn tells Apple Music, “when you’d put your favourite tracks together for your friends, and it would be stuff that you personally delighted in, that you were really excited to introduce to people.” The violinist’s love letter to her instrument, as she describes it, includes famous works performed by the great violinists, such Itzhak Perlman’s Brahms and Midori’s Paganini. Many of her chosen pieces, however, have deep personal connections, such as the opening track, “Isolation Variation,” composed for and premiered online by Hahn during the pandemic lockdowns. “Although it’s about a violinist going through the motions of working in isolation, it’s also got a repetitive aspect to it and is as much about the daily life of being a musician,” she says. In between pieces by Max Richter and J.S. Bach lies one of Hahn’s favourite works, the middle movement of Ginastera’s rarely performed Violin Concerto that features on her 2022 album Eclipse. “With this piece, you’re hearing the essence of humanity in music, and you realize it’s complicated,” Hahn suggests. “It’s so much about feelings and emotions.” But, admits Hahn, no mixtape would be complete without Ysaÿe’s solo sonatas, pieces inspired by Bach’s solo music for the violin, but with 20th-century twists. “If you’ve got Bach in your playlist and it’s about the violin,” adds Hahn, “you’ve got to have Ysaÿe!”