In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores

For this 2013 album, violinist Hilary Hahn invited 26 composers each to write a short piece for her. The result is a spellbinding collection of works by a top lineup of composing talent, including Max Richter, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Lera Auerbach and Jennifer Higdon (whose 2008 Violin Concerto was also written for Hahn). Hahn revels in the musical contrasts, juxtaposing Du Yun’s challenging, angular “When a Tiger Meets a Rosa Rugosa” with David Lang’s hypnotic, minimalist “Light Moving”. There’s room for a good deal of lightheartedness, too, in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s “Hilary’s Hoedown” and film composer James Newton Howard’s cinematic “133…At Least”. One final piece was selected via an open competition that attracted more than 400 entries. The winner, “The Angry Birds of Kauai” by American composer Jeff Myers, wittily evokes the furious squawking and singing of the thousands of birds on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.