García Abril: 6 Partitas

Album review

Hilary Hahn never stops pushing the boundaries of classical music. An accomplished virtuoso and talented chamber musician, the American violinist plays the entire violin repertoire from Bach all the way up to the present day, including the classical and romantic period. Most of all, she likes to excite interest around new works and already commissioned a series of small pieces from twenty-seven composers. Then she went a step further and asked the Spanish composer Antón García Abril to compose a sequence of 6 Partitas for solo violin inspired loosely by J.S. Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas.

Already feeling very confident about García Abril’s work, the violinist was surprised to find that the music completely exceeded her expectations. She found this new body of work “inspiring” as the phrases resonated with her and the notes flowed naturally from her fingers, “His writing for violin is compelling” says Hilary Hahn, “Fluid, emotional, clever and expressively rich”. The polyphonic writing of the Spanish composer born in 1933 is indeed marvellous in these unaccompanied pieces. García Abril has turned his back resolutely on the typical avant-garde that emerged in the post-war years and the composer’s music is tonal and full of melody, using his own rhythms. Despite the suggestion from their title, the 6 Partitas are not dance suites but rather a succession of six independent states of mind, “Heart”, “Immensity”, “Love”, “Art”, “Reflexive”, “You”, (an acronym for Hilary herself). This is more than enough to fuel the imagination and the musical repertoire of violinists from all over the world who play their “Bach”, rather predictably, for the encore of each concert. © François Hudry/Qobuz