Hilary Hahn, the superstar 23 year old violinist, played last night at Zellerbach Hall. Since I had never attended a recital of a world class violinist, I thought that it would be a novel treat to hear Hahn play. Actually, the real reason I decided to go was that she had on her program the Bach Partita in D Minor, the ultra-famous piece that obsessed me two years ago in the form of Morimur. Although Krista, my friend and violinist, and I sat about 15 rows back from the front, placing us close but not that close to Hahn and her accompianist, I brought my shiny new cheap binoculars to take a closer look. It was silly of me to think that I could make sense of Hahn's graceful fingering and effortness bowing -- she made playing the violin look so easy that I began to doubt all the stories coming from my violinist friends about their struggles to master the instrument. Of course, Ms. Hahn was displaying the fruits of 19 years of disciplined training and abundant natural musical gifts.

Still, the playing seemed a bit too smooth, not gritty enough somehow. But then, what do I know?

To get a taste of what Hahn might be like in person, go listen to an interview with her on NPR. I particularly enjoyed her comments about JSB. (Yes, it all comes back to Bach in the end.)

NPR: You have said in some print interviews that "Bach is the touchstone that keeps me honest." What do you mean by that?

Hahn: I guess basically by that I meant that when I'm playing Bach I can't cheat on anything. You know, I can't have bad technique, forget about phrasing and I have to remember everything. Everything works together. So it's a great balancing act. It's kind of a mind trainer, something like playing chess or something like that.