Violinist Hahn to play Sibelius with symphony

Violin superstar Hilary Hahn is making a return visit to the Utah Symphony next weekend. After an absence of several years, she'll join the orchestra and music director Keith Lockhart in Sibelius' ever-popular Violin Concerto.

The Sibelius concerto is one of Hahn's favorites, she said by phone from her home in Maryland, where she was on a rare two-week break from concertizing. "It's a work I learned while a student" at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

The concerto has a lot to offer both the soloist and the listener. "Interpretively, you can focus on the emotional content," Hahn said. "There is a lot to work with in its dark and light contrast."

What makes the concerto fascinating for Hahn is how it moves between moods. "It's not really a dark piece but it isn't bright and sunny either. It really is a study in contrasts."

March turned out to be Sibelius month for the 26-year-old violinist. Before coming to Utah, Hahn will have played the concerto in Indianapolis and Tucson. And after Salt Lake City, she travels to Scandinavia, where she'll play it in Denmark and Sweden with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

"And I'm going to record it in Stockholm with Esa Pekka Salonen," Hahn said. On that album, the Sibelius will be paired with Arnold Schoenberg's Violin Concerto, a work that has yet to receive its due. But Hahn has learned it and plays it as often as presenters request it. "The Schoenberg is new for me," Hahn said. "I performed it for the first time last year, and I really like it."

Putting Sibelius and Schoenberg on the same CD might seem like a stretch to most people, but Hahn enjoys it. Her last album paired Paganini's Concerto in D major with one of Louis Spohr's concertos. "I think it works really well," she said, and she expects the new album to sell equally as well. Of course, if you're Hahn, no matter what you record, it will sell. (Next weekend's concerts are an all-Sibelius affair. Besides the Violin Concerto, Lockhart and the orchestra will also play the tone poem "Night Ride and Sunrise" and the Symphony No. 5.)

In between concerto performances, chamber music and recitals, Hahn still finds the time to write an online journal, a practice she began many years ago. She tries to have an entry and photos for every city she visits. "I don't have a regular time to write and put pictures up," she admitted.

In the past, she would do that while flying between engagements. "Now I use that time to sleep."

To access Hahn's journal, log onto her Web site at www.hilaryhahn.com.

If you go

What: Hilary Hahn, violinist; Keith Lockhart, conductor; Utah Symphony

Where: Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple

When: Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.

How much: $12-$48

Phone: 355-2787 or 888-451-2787

Web: www.utahsymphonyopera.org

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E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com