Hilary Hahn ANTÓN GARCÍA ABRIL 6 Partitas

Following the widely celebrated release of Hilary Hahn Plays Bach on Decca Classics last fall, Hilary Hahn returns with a world premiere recording of Antón García Abril’s 6 Partitas, commissioned by Hahn for solo violin—her first-ever solo commission and her first of a set of pieces from a single composer. Each movement has a different theme, displays its own personality, and is deeply tied to the performer for whom the work was written—so much so that García Abril chose to name the movements after Hahn in acrostic: HEART, IMMENSITY, LOVE, ART, REFLECTIVE, YOU.

There is a longstanding tradition of great composers writing six polyphonic works for the violin. Perhaps due to the creativity that arises when a composer is limited to a single unaccompanied instrument, and the challenge of creating a set of diverse but cohesive material within that framework, these pieces rank amongst the most iconic, progressive compositions in the repertoire. Hahn commissioned these 6 Partitas from García Abril both to continue this tradition as well as to amplify this important contemporary composer outside of his home country. Likewise, García Abril found inspiration in Hahn’s technical proficiency and interpretational skill, writing her personality and mastery of the violin into the music itself.

“This commission led me to an enthusiastic and long-meditated work,” said García Abril. “I had the great fortune to compose them directly with Hilary… [her] generosity and interest in the work makes her one of the all-time greats, unique and powerful—not only artistically but at the same time intellectually, placing her in a higher musical state.”

Mayke Rademakers / Matthijs Verschoor LA FURIA: PASSION, FURY AND MELANCHOLIA

Mayke Rademakers: All my life, I’ve played a lot of Spanish music, and so has my partner and duo-pianist Matthijs Verschoor. Both of us have worked and studied in Spain. And I spent some time immersing myself in Buenos Aires, because I wanted to see the tango with my own eyes: how people perceived it, how they danced it in the streets and on public squares. At a certain point we got this sense of wanting to do something with it. We had a number of works on our repertoire and so we investigated how we could combine them with new pieces, music we still needed to discover, to produce a great CD. We found the music we were looking for. We put together an exciting combination of Spanish and South American music. In a nutshell: flamenco and tango. 

Spanish music takes folk music as its starting point. La Furia is based on that idea. This music is about the heat, the poverty, about lifestyle and passion. La furia literally means anger or aggression. But in Latin, the word has very positive connotations. It means doing what your instincts tell you, acting with passion, giving it your all. The tango flamenco spread from Spain to South America. The tango is truly South American. Although it does show some flamenco influences, the tango definitely found its own form. Perhaps the biggest difference is that the tango is ‘urban’, because it arose in Buenos Aires. The flamenco is ‘rustic’, because it arose in the countryside.