Throw caution to the wind, please

For all her fine playing, violinist Hilary Hahn had a few of us scratching our heads at her long recital Tuesday in the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Why had she picked works by Mozart that cast the violin in such a secondary position? Why did she take all the repeats, not only in Mozart but also in Bach, especially when she found so little character in these sections the first time? Why play Bach’s most dramatic work for solo violin with such little drama?

Hahn opened the recital with Mozart’s Sonata in G, K. 301, composed at a time (the 1770s) when it was standard for string-keyboard duos to be, essentially, piano sonatas with violin accompaniment. Her choice immediately threw the focus onto pianist Natalie Zhu, who played -- as she did throughout the evening -- with style, verve and discretion. Hahn could have redressed the imbalance with more forceful and imaginative playing, but she didn’t. Perhaps she was being generous to her recital partner.

But even in Mozart’s Sonata in A, K. 526, the closing piece of the four-part program, in which Mozart made the two parts more equal, Hahn was reticent and somewhat characterless.

Overall, her sound was lyrical, small, inward -- narrow in dynamic and expressive range. It was also pure, finely spun, rich in golden and amber colors. Technically, she was irreproachable, but she projected so little engagement with the music that it was difficult to engage with her. The recital felt more like eavesdropping on a private event than sharing an experience.

Hahn began Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor, which closed the first half of the program, with an intriguing sense of improvisation, meditatively exploring a musical idea and its possible contours, extensions and detours. She continued the ruminative mood through the next three short movements. But when she came to the final Chaconne -- which is as long if not longer than the other movements combined and which is the summit of solo violin repertory -- her approach proved inadequate to its soul-shattering power.

Bloch’s Sonata No. 1, which she placed just after intermission, was the piece that most seemed to engage her. She opened it with biting and aggressive attacks and, in tight ensemble with Zhu, explored all its ferocious aspects. But in its contrasting sections of peace and calm, she slipped behind that earlier curtain of privacy. At 24, she may be aiming not to over-dramatize music but hitting caution instead.