Hahn-Bin: Reviews Have Been Good

Violinist Hahn-Bin¹ receives positive reviews from music critics following his debut recital at Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall in New York City last Thursday.  In his New York Times column today, Allan Kozzin describes how the Mohawk-shorn, award-winning, 22-year old from South Korea handled his unusual program interspersing classics with more contemporary works.²

The constant gear-switching, from standard to novel and back, did not always work: several leaps produced a sort of musical whiplash. But you could not argue with the distinct characterizations Hahn-Bin brought to each score, and there was no resisting his rich, varied tone and his technical facility. And when his juxtapositions worked, they were inspired. Cage’s youthful Nocturne (1947), a meditative dreamscape, made a fascinating preface to Nathan Milstein’s quirky transcription of Chopin’s Nocturne No. 20 in C sharp minor.

Hahn-Bin made news last August when he lost his violin in a New York taxicab.  His Pressenda violin, worth about half a million dollars, was soon retrieved with the help of the city’s new GPS tracking system.  Here is a video clip of his appearance at "The Early Show" on CBS after that incident and just before his debut performance.

¹hahn-bin.com
²Allan Kozzin, "Back and Forth Between Old and New", The New York Times, Oct. 10, 2009