Hilary Hahn and Josh Ritter Paganini Cantabile

[GregoryLewisKuwait]

Wow. Amazing. Very accurate pitch on the violin. Well executed. 100%.

[BlueWildTiger]

This piece is beautiful! I hope to play next year with my sister! I play the guitar!

[robertslistening]

Hilary can sing beautifully on that instrument (cantabile). It's her consistent pitch accuracy in single notes and harmony that make her sound so sweet. Paganini must have had a lot of fun making up pieces with his skills.

I don't think Ann Marie Calhoun is as good as Hilary, but she plays a marvellous jazz-gypsy mix.

[RUKOCHILENO]

Bien!!!

[TheHabouh]

Cette pièce est magnifique ! J'espère pouvoir la jouer l'année prochaine avec ma soeur ! je joue de la guitare !

[danceful4]

I saw these two preform together at the Rivina festival, and i was like 11. she is my inspiration! someday i am going to play like her. I am 13 and i am making my way there!!!!! =)

[soulguitarplayer]

Very nice interpretation

[outoftunefiddler]

She did give him the "look"., though..Did you see it..the small smile?

[olivleonardo]

@outoftunefiddler LOL. Go, Josh Ritter.

[maitiudeburca]

There is quite a lot of critical commentary about Josh's guitar playing. He is not a classical guitarist so it's probably founded. But it's all a bit much for me really. Most people in the world aren't critical analysts of classical music.

She is one of the most famous/best violinists around and he is one of the greatest folk songwriters America has produced in recent times. They are friends from home and they played a gig together. Simple enough stuff really,

And to me, it sounded great :)

[outoftunefiddler]

@maitiudeburca Good comment. At here level, even she, thank God, has friends.......

[azndaemon95]

I'm stunned by the beauty of her tone and playing.

[pixigirl74]

Her tone is amazingggg. I loveee this piece <3333

[Lutekbutek]

like for Hilary, dislike for Josh

[outoftunefiddler]

@Lutekbutek Did ja just fall off the turnip truck?

[salamitommy1]

That was beautiful!

[SeoulSon51]

I can only find part 2 of the performance, which is the last 5 songs. Does anyone know where I can find a download of the whole performance? I would be so grateful.

[glallee]

@SeoulSon51

Don't know about the rest of this performance, but NPR has their performance together at WNYC in May 2008, which may get you some of what you are looking for. Since YouTube won't let me post the link, you'll have to go to NPR.org and just search for Hillary Hahn and Josh Ritter an Uncommon Duo. It was a story they did on Morning Edition, May 22, 2008.

[outoftunefiddler]

@glallee Good comment. Even Hilary, at her level, has friends..! Everyone's a critic...(

[kirktorf]

What a sound she gets.

[demarezmichel]

Très beau morceau Nous vous présentons notre version flûte - guitare

Michel et Jean

[enma15ai]

terrible

no feeling of music

cold playing

who doesn't agree, don't comment!! i don't fucking care about your opinions like "OH< HILLARY IS SO COOL!!! AMAZING!!!"

this is SHIT , not a musician. maybe good violinist. But as a musician - stinky shit

[walshamite]

@enma15ai Why so very critical, Евгений? Too hard. You may see a few imperfections, though few indeed from her ... we know he is not in her league as we can hear ... but I think you are going over the top with this 'destructive critic' rant! Why not listen to her Korngold v.c. performance here and see if you still feel so angry?

[LeChanathon]

@enma15ai i'm sorry. could you do better?

[vcarrilloa]

She is amazing!! A nice boy trying to make music with a great violinist ....

[violinoamore]

Hmm ... maybe he is her boyfriend, but to bring him on stage just because this does not diminish his rather amateurish playing that does not suit the occassion at all

[jayadsilva67]

He tuned his guitar with a donkey's dick. As for Hilary, that was just average.

[trollfiddler]

Someone should use that guitar to beat the guitarist over the head with. What an abortion of an accompaniment. What's he there for? Music like that doesn't need that clattery racket thudding away out of time in the background.

[Yavorin]

haha, troll is part of your name, nicely planned name, trollfiddler.

[BrennanFace]

He may not be a " Classical Guitar " Player but he still has bad posture. and for a great preformce like this, you'd think they would have a Classical Guitar Player.

[123mysunnybear]

hilary is a great violinist. being a violinist myself, i wish i could play like her. although i do agree that Kogan sounds amazing as well. they both have their own styles, which is definitely allowed. so don't go dissing musician's techniques and distinguished innuendos.

[DylanNViolin94]

the guitar player has bad posture just sayn, i just relized that hahaha he sucks

[prayformercy4]

hes not a classical guitarist. its not a bad posture.

[DylanNViolin94]

i disagree with jayadsilva67....have you ever heard of the saying if you cant perform than teach.....well nobody cares about mr.kogans version your fucking comparing your violin teacher to hilary hahn thats retarded

[salvavillani]

meravigliosa!

salvatore villani -firenze

[pbpeex]

the guitarrist is lost

[magiorey]

The guitarist is not merely lost, his technique (and therefore the resulting sound) is awful!

[littledagny]

He's not a classical musician... she played a folk song with him, so he attempted this one with her :-D Their duets are wonderful. I wish more musicians would collaborate across genre lines like this.

[predictablepeter]

@magiorey Listen for the sound, not the technique. It sounds great.

[magiorey]

In my opinion the sound is no good, then again that's a matter of personal preference, being a classical guitarist I expect something different when listening to Paganini played on guitar, a richer, warmer sound, the fact he uses a steel string doesn't help...

[letloosethedogsofwar]

This piece is absolutely amazing first of all.... Second, please don't demean the difficulty that this undertaking had, because I can say for a fact that when played live like this, all eyes are on you and nothing will cover-up for a single timing error. This piece is, imo, very romantic. I performed this w/ my ex after we broke up and the romantic-ness made it hard to play, much less for a huge crowd full of everyone knowing what was going on on stage between us. The piece is beautiful tho.

[calloffthedogs]

have babies with me Hilary.

[HahnPotterishFowlnut]

She is wonderful!

[jayadsilva67]

No so good. My violin teacher plays better. You must see Mr. Kogan's version of it. That is simply superb.

[prayformercy4]

ur violin teacher plays better than hilary hahn?? interesting, and also hard to believe. hilary is almost at the top of her game.....not many people are better than her

[Steroid0Strad]

Your violin teacher plays better? Bullshit. Why isn't he/she internationally famous?

[Aeryck]

josh's timing is EXCELLENT and hilary is fucking breath taking............FIERCE performance!!!

[AreejObeid]

Oh God this piece is beautiful! I love really romantic pieces like this *sigh*

Amazing performance as usual :)

[nandy00]

I LOVE YOU HILARY !!! :-)

[djseo1]

The guitarist is gawd awful. It's not even a proper classical guitar. Very crummy sound and technique. Ruined Hilary Hahn's beautiful playing completely. Too bad. Really.

[predictablepeter]

snob-issimo

[Livisfunatic]

But I prefer Sarah Chang's version with the piano!

[CarolynViolin]

Like Hilary, I am also a professional violinist. I freelance in the MD/DC area and also play in NYC. I play the classical repertoire and I also stroll and I can improvise. I love Cantabile! It's one of my favorite pieces! And Hilary is one of my favorite violinists! She plays it beautifully! Wonderful technique, lovely vibrato and a very gorgeous interpretation! Carolyn

[benzflix]

Saying "Like Hilary, I am also a professional violinist" is like my town clerk saying, "Like Obama, I'm a politician." A little realistic perspective, not to mention humility, would serve you better. The sentence would have been a whole lot less offensive without the presumptuous three words: "Like," "Hilary," and "also."

[AreejObeid]

I like that one a lot too. She plays it so passionately.

I think because Hilary's playing with a guitar here she had to tone it down a bit and play softly to not drown the guitar's sound out.

[onlinedesign]

Outstanding performance. I truly enjoyed that. Thank you.

[chaconne99]

Lui è stranoooOOO!! :-O

eheheeh, ma stan bene insieme sti due :-)

Perchè ogni tanto gli viene da ridere a lui?eheheh

Bacioni

[zucchini2007]

I believe this piece sounds so much better with the piano accompaniment instead of using the guitar. And I prefer Sarah Chang's interpretation of this piece...somehow it sounds so much more emotive when she plays it.

[OnAMushkin73]

Agreed... I've played this and I prefer to include some dramatic slides even though they may not be stylistically appropriate. The audience f-ing loves it.

Hahn is very technically precise, but I have never enjoyed her slower more romantic pieces.

[cenolbaj]

A bit cheap ...

[compmeist]

Paganini was a bit of a ham

[annaisonthemoon]

couldnt agree more

[naninani84]

che belli e che bravi!questa si che è musica, si vede con quanto piacere suonano!

[NKY8190]

what kind of vibarto is she really using?

i can hardly see the movement of the wrist and arm..

[carolyn246]

i think she's using mostly wrist

[Fughetta]

i think, she´s using a very fast and tight arm vibrato

[compmeist]

It looks like she is using whatever is comfortable for her ... but typically it originates from the wrist, under slight tension ...

[alxteam]

its ok but, shes not that good

she needs to put more emotion into it

her compared to sarah chang is like ......

sarah chang kills it

[angelviolin14]

Put more emotion into it? hmmm I think I'd like to see you play that half as good as she did....plus the fact that this one's pretty slow compared to her other nicer classical peices, if you've listened to anything else she's done. The Village was a very nice movie that she played the music for...you should try listening to that CD.

[lechatn0ir]

lol emotion? by emotion do you mean wrong intonation?

hahn may not be the most musically interesting, but she definitely has extraordinary talent, and precision.

[fdapproved16]

sarah chang is not that great either!!!!! u should see how she raises her eyebrows like she's swallowed a sour lemon! but yes it's it's true that hilary does need to more emotion in2 her work... the guitarist looks stupid.

[maturanesa]

2:30 to 2:36 is really weird, is not the original i think

[angelviolin14]

don't say something you're not quite sure of. Hilary Hahn does sing, she just doesn't record herself singing. She sang the happy birthday song. It's just not something she wants to do. If you wanna see her sing so bad visit her channel "hilaryhahnvideos" here on YouTube, and you'll see her singing happy birthday to Mr. Shoenburg.

Also I didn't really like Josh Ritter that much no offense to any of the fans :-P

[naninani84]

ma che carini che sono sti due giovini!:-)

[calloffthedogs]

her playing is very in tune and rythmic and she knows how to "turn a phrase" very well. Everything is perfectly lovely. Yet for some reason something is lacking. Oh how I miss the players of old - they were all unique.

[greybeardd]

All in all a perfectly charming performance! To add my two cents to the "controversy" below, the guitar part isn't so demanding that it needs the talents and instrument of a John Williams or Julian Bream. That he is playing a "cowboy guitar" is no more relevant a thing than someone playing a Bach piece on a piano instead of a harpsichord. Nice to see Hahn collaborating with other musicians of her generation. I understand she recently worked with Chris Theiele. Would love to hear that!

[stringirl]

pretty tepid playing...

[claytunez]

Very sensitive! Beautiful, I love the interpretation. Good work and looking forward to hear more of you.

[fodera6]

Not only is he playing a dreadnought but he's using the dreaded piezo pickup too! Ouch. I won't even comment on his technique. Nylon strings with a mic only would've complemented her much better here. Still, it's exciting to break the "rules" every so often. Get along little doggie!

[mehmeh202]

If you watch the video of the same two performers playing the song "Bone of Song" you'll hear Hilary say it's his first time playing classical guitar... Josh may not be a classical musician but he's an amazing songwriter and a true artist in his own right. The point of this experiment was for both artists to try something new, so be open to what they're trying to expose to you. Don't dismiss Josh because he isn't classical, just like I shouldn't dismiss Hilary because she doesn't sing.

[dfxr808]

She does sing.

[mehmeh202]

And he plays violin, too, or at least he did. My point still stands. The goal of their collaboration was to push each other artisitically. So be open to it, don't just criticize him because he's not some classical player, just like I won't criticize Hahn because she doesn't write folk rock songs or whatever. That's the point I was trying to make.

[mehmeh202]

Ok, well change "she doesn't sing" to "she doesn't write folk-rock songs" and there you go.

[mehmeh202]

I mean really it doesn't matter that much... I really like Hillary Hahn... it's just dissappointing to me to see so many people bash Josh in these comments when he's so talented, just maybe not at classical guitar.

[dfxr808]

My point still stands, too. I'm not disagreeing with you, although you attempted a failed invective. Rather, I'm pointing out that your premise was based on faulty logic.

[hakmirchai]

Hank would not a done ya like that.

[NOalRAZZISMO]

At 3:36 the lower B in the violin should be sharp!

[AceUnlimited000]

the violin note there is a C sharp and sounds pretty in tune to me.( hehe trust me...i have perfect pitch.)

[NOalRAZZISMO]

You didn't get it pal, Csharp,D,Csharp,Bsharp,Csharp (fifth bar to the end) she plays b natural.

[AceUnlimited000]

Oh i see. I apologize. hehe i thought you meant the first note at 3:36. youre absolutely right about the B natural.

[issavestheworld]

Just a wrong note. Happens once in a whole.

[manifold0606]

interesting observation. Maybe she thought the B# is too emotional and so changed it to B. Or it's just a mistake. Haha.

[littleloverboy]

I was not impressed with ritter here, both timing and choice of guitars.

hahn smoothed it out, though.

[CompacMXX]

haha yeah, country or classical you Josh? this must be american.

[kacharov]

texan guitar? this is classical, not pop music

[plasticPlaystation]

Not so good. I can't hear the bass notes...

[ewongkl]

She's so into the music. At 1:23 you can see her made a playful expression matching exactly her portamento. Barely a few seconds later at 1:27, she became all serious when the melody changes into minor.

[ewongkl]

Very nice and soothing playing. Personally I prefer this to Chang's more passionate interpretation.

She was forced to skip a beat at 1:39 because Ritter entered too soon. Very quick response.

[jazkoul]

What a shame to play this on an acoustic guitar with a thumb that produces almost no bass sounds! Come on.... get serious. Hilary's playing needs proper support.

[shawkobezhu]

was wondering about the same thing

[VideosTimes2]

I have ALWAYS been impressed with Josh Ritter since I first saw him opening for Joan Baez sometime ago! This is over the top as far as showing the versatility of Josh! It appears he can do no wrong!

[chuqutty]

So mesmerizing! Hilary Hahn's version of Paganini's Cantabile is like the music from heaven. It's light yet full of passion.

[viorojo61]

Some violinist think that she is always out of tempo,to me ,she is pretty good....

[FoggyRoad81]

I LOVE how they are merging the styles. It is spectacular to see.

[kaikobird]

You can tell this was one of his first classical performances! He doesn't stay in time with her ritards every now and then. But fun anyways.