Hillary Hahn Is Coming To Town...

[JSngry]

...and discounted tickets have not yet gone on sale, if, indeed, they will.

Here's the program:

BACH-WEBERN Ricercar from "The Musical Offering"
HAYDN Symphony No. 98
BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto

It will be tickets for two, so...I know she's internationally renowned and the program is not unappealing, but bottom line - for the kind of money they're asking (150-250 bucks for two congruous decent seats)..is she really all that, not so much relative to "today", but to overall? Because I can spend that same money elsewhere and feel good about it going in.

I know, a Major Artist Of Our Time, Etc., support the arts, yeaahyeahyeahyeahyeah. Tell me about all that, please don't, that's why I'm even thinking about it (especially when the DSO routinely puts out 2-for-1 offers for most of their Sunday matinees, making it easy to check it out). so just tell me, if you've seen her live, would you spend that bread to do it again? Not once, but again?

[bogdan101]

I would only spend that much if they would bring back Kreisler or Szigeti for a few encores...

[Mark Stryker]

I can tell you that Hahn is the real deal for any era -- I've heard her play (live) Nielsen, Tchaikovsky, Higdon and Bach and she brought brains and brawn to all. (On record I liked her Schoenberg and Sibelius and solo Bach.) But having said that, I'd have a REAL hard time shelling out that kind of cash for that particular program, though I'm guessing the Beethoven would be terrific. That first half could be pretty dull -- I have no idea what kind of Haydn conductor Van Zweden is and even for a season opener that's a really conservative program. I don't know what your ticket price threshold might be, but for myself I'd want two for considerably less than $100 -- maybe $75/$80 max. Maybe. Depends on how bad you want to hear Hahn/Beethoven. That way, anything else good that happens is gravy.

Edited September 15, 2014 by Mark Stryker

[jazztrain]

I've seen her a couple of times (Tanglewood and Symphony Hall in Boston). She's quite good. The tickets were a lot less. If the program doesn't appeal, you might wait for another chance.

[Mark Stryker]

FYI, just saw on Twitter that Hilary Hahn canceled her concerts this weekend with Baltimore due to an injury of some sort. Not sure what means for Dallas next week. ...

Edited September 16, 2014 by Mark Stryker

[David Ayers]

I love HH.

[king ubu]

I love HH.

Me too, but I don't like that abbreviation ... prince Harry might differ though

Haven't caught her live yet, but I surely hope to do so eventually (same for PatKop whom I just missed - simply no time right now).

[jazzbo]

Edited September 15, 2014 by jazzbo

[Spontooneous]

Fan of Hilary. Not a fan of the Beethoven concerto. Oh well.

But -- seriously -- drop a few bucks on a recording of the Bach-Webern Ricercar. It will atomize everything you ever thought you knew about the orchestra.

[MomsMobley]

HH is def. the real deal. I might prefer something other than Beethoven myself (great but oft heard) but... Hahn's CDs of Schoenberg & Sibelius vc and the Ives vn sonatas are both superb and less than expected...

[Larry Kart]

Much better recording of the Ives Violin Sonatas IMO is Gregory Fulkerson and Robert Shannon’s on Bridge:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Sonatas-Violin-Piano-Charles/dp/B000003GII/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1410900921&sr=1-1&keywords=fulkerson+ives

[JSngry]

Ok, she spells her first name with only one "l". Oops.

She's not coming to Dallas, I guess due to that same injury. No announcement on the DSO website, just now on those dates it's gonna be Augustin Hadelich. I'm sure everybody who's already bought tickets won't mind. Me, I haven't, so I apprecaite it, actually, makes my choice a lot easier.

"Conservative" choice..on her website she's was slated to play it elsewhere, not just here. But this is the DSO, which, from a business standpoint, exists as a "cultural" institution in the sense that they're here to reinforce the known for people who are reinforced by them doing so. The TI Classical Series, that's what this was a part of, the TI Classical Series.

Same thing for ticket prices. The DSO does not exist to encourage people with low or limited incomes to come out to the gig, except, sometimes, on Sundays, or if you want to get really, REALLY bad seats, or interesting ones, like in the Choral Terrace behind the orchestra. So, it gonna cost what it gonna cost, dig? And "next time" it will no doubt cost even more.

Appreciate all the responses. I think I'd have paid the price and gone, just to do it. When there are no really valid excuses, I'm of the school that says if you got a chance to hear somebody of this tier live, hey. That's why I went to see Sinatra at Cesar's in 1981, and that ended up being a damn spectacular performance, which I guess not all of them were at that time.

Not that I'm comparing Hilary Hahn to Sinatra. I didn't have to think twice about hitting that Sinatra gig.

[David Ayers]

Hadelich is no slouch either.

DSO though is not cheap!