What’s a song that changed your life?
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I can’t point to one song and say, “Hearing that changed my life.” But one piece of music made me feel the boundaries of musical expression stretching as I listened. I was thirty when I first heard Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto. The first movement drew me in with its darkness, its mystery. The second movement was wildly animated, as if it didn’t know where it wanted to go, but then it came together in a rousing climax. Then came the movement Shostakovich titled Passacaglia. I never heard anyone dive so deep into their soul to produce sound. The orchestral introduction lasts for about 1:30 before Hilary Hahn begins playing. I chose her rendering because something about her mien seems to find the music and meet it at its depth. This video includes the concerto’s cadenza, which pushes the violin to its limits.
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