DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE!!! THIS is POISON!!!
Yes, this is probably the best performance of the Schoenberg Violin Concerto ever recorded. That said, it is still a piece that looks better on paper than it sounds. The constant hype about the work does NOT make it a better piece of music. It is dull, paper music, PERIOD! This is musical castor oil played very sweetly, but even Mary Poppins won't make this go down "...in a most delightful way!!!" Hahn's hyperlyrical style makes the work sing better than ever before. The orchestra performance is excellent as is the conducting.

The Sibelius is a DUD and completely earthbound. There is NO grit in this performance, it is all oily-smooth and punctilliously played, but it NEVER catches FIRE as it can. Just listen to Heifetz or David Oistrakh or Julian Sitkovetsky. Salonen's partnership in this piece is completely misbegotten. He, as per usual, likes loud-and-fast, while Hahn wants deep and lyrical. I remember hearing a live performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto like this one: a fight to the finish with the violinist plodding and the conductor racing when the soloist finally shuts up. The tempo gear-changes are God-awful and finale has NO rhythmic articulation. I have never heard the dance rhythms in this piece sound so mushy. Don't waste the money on this...

ON THE OTHER HAND, if you like musical castor oil, play the Schoenberg recording, hold your nose, and swallow...

One that grows on you
Schoenberg is an acquired taste. As hard as it is to go from sugary to bitterly dietary food, it is to allow your verbal musical pallette to embrace such harshness and brusqueness into that comfort zone.

I know that when I was young, almost all of these composers from the 20th century sounded weird compared to Bach and Beethoven--Everybody from Stravinsky to Copland gave me some sense of change and development along the classical music timeline, but even Ravel's and Bartok's music had such rich and lush melody to swim through. Schoenberg (Lord knows I've come up with way too many metaphors by now; In the scheme of tests, it's like the Roraschach; In the scheme of games, it's like 'Where's Waldo?', etc.) is still a bit rough around the edges, forcing you to either fight or flight. I have to say, though, I really like it more than I did when this CD came out.

I think I expected Hilary's recording to be huge given that it had gotten 5-star reviews before it was even released in the US, but when I played it the first time, it left me with a cold feeling, and after only 2 listens, I actually felt the need to tell Hilary Hahn after the Met concert earlier this year that I was disappointed with the piece (not her performance), then I felt bad about that later because this was the night of the CD launch party. She'd been doing a lot of performing and travelling that week--This might not have been the best time to say that, so please forgive me, Hilary! :)

Having said this, I'd been listening to other music of Schoenberg's with a decidedly unbiased ear (The Piano pieces, the Piano Concerto, Verklarte Nacht, earlier solo violin pieces, Zvi Zeitlin's recording of the VC from 1972, etc.) and it's been very helpful. It's much more enriching for me getting to know Schoenberg's style and flow--It just takes a different set of ears for you (Depending on what your ears are like to begin with) to prep for this man's music.

Now that I've managed to do that, I can fully embrace this recording, and say it's a classic.
In addition to this, I'm very happy that A) we're seeing history being made as Hilary manages to popularize a piece that really hadn't been given much of a chance during Schoenberg's day (Historic also for the fact that Hilary's was the first Schoenberg recording to debut or chart at number 1 on a Billboard chart), and B) we're hearing the performance of a lifetime from this world-class soloist!

BTW, I think the gorgeous Sibelius Concerto makes a really cool reward for getting through the Schoenberg! ;)

puzzling as always
I just don't understand all the hoopla being made about Hilary Hahn. I've listened to a number of her recordings at this point, and they all invariably strike me the same way: clean technique, an agreeable tonal quality which never varies from work to work or within one piece, and a total lack of expressive intensity or emotional involvement. Her biggest travesty thus far has been the Elgar Concerto, a work which for me defines a violinist's artistry and imagination, and through which she simply, inexplicably sleepwalks. But I'm always willing to give a performer another shot, no matter how often I've been disappointed, and I was interested to hear what she makes of the thorny Schoenberg concerto, a piece which is hardly what one would call "finger-lickin' good". But all it took was 1 minute for me to throw up my hands; I simply give up. This is a piece which DEMANDS expressive intensity, a meaningful sense of direction from note to note which, here as elsewhere, Hahn refuses or is simply unable to provide. I was too dispirited after the Schoenberg to even bother with the Sibelius, but I'm confident that performance would have enthralled me about as much. I'm a fan of Esa-Pekka Salonen, and he provides admirable support here, but his efforts are sorely wasted. Thank God I merely listened to a friend's copy, rather than wasting my own money on this disc.

I guess it's all about marketing. Maybe there are many listeners who are so enthralled with Hahn's little girl looks that they imagine they're really hearing something meaningful in her playing. I'm sorry, but I simply don't hear anything at all meaningful, here or elsewhere. I prefer to listen with my ears; and anyway, if it's looks you're after, check out Nicola Benedetti. She's infinitely more attractive than Hilary, and what is important, she is a genuine artist who can express and communicate real emotion in the music she plays.

Revelatory
The Schoenberg violin concerto is widely admired and widely studied, but it isn't much played, and it's never been much loved. This is partly because of the huge technical hurdles it presents fiddlers, but also because it isn't especially easy to bring off musically; in this regard it is unlike the piano concerto, say, which is far more accessible, and which offers up at least some of its beauties simply by being played accurately. I've heard most of the violin concerto performances previously committed to disc and never found them very pleasing; the soloist always seems to be eating his spinach like a good boy. As a consequence, I've always taken it to be one of Schoenberg's more rebarbative works, like the thoroughly unpleasant wind quintet. But Hillary Hahn has located the romantic soul of the piece --- she seems to see in it a kinship to a work like the Brahms concerto --- and delivers a performance that is not only technically thrilling but also very moving. It has fundamentally changed my opinion of this concerto; the score's mastery no longer feels predominantly theoretical, but rather, is characteristic of Schoenberg's masterpieces, big, generous-hearted, romantic.
The Sibelius performance is impeccable as well, but good performances of that very popular piece aren't so hard to come by. The Schoenberg is the reason to buy this CD.

What a pair!
Schoenberg wrote two concerti after coming to the U.S., one for violin, the other for piano. The Piano Concerto has had a number of strong advocates over the years, including Glen Gould, Peter Serkin, and Mitsuko Uchida, and I own several recordings of that work that I treasure. I've always wanted to feel the same sense of connection to the Violin Concerto, but had never heard a recording that caught my imagination. Hilary Hahn's new recording with Esa-Pekka Salonen finally does this. Hahn plays the piece as though it were Brahms, and not a technical exercise. The music flows, and the hidden romanticism (which in Schoenberg often lies below an icy layer of irony) seeps through to the surface.
I had never been fond of the Sibelius concerto until I heard a performance of Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting it with Midori. Salonen played the work in a way that seemed not to try to hide the structural quirks of the first movement, but instead emphasized them. Suddenly the work belonged in the 20th century, not the 19th! While Ms. Hahn lacks Midori's intensity in the solo, this performance has the structural aspects I found so compelling in Salonen's treatment of the orchestra from that performance. All told, these two seemingly incompatible conertos make a fascinating pair, and the performers achieve something really astonishing with both works. Brava and Bravo!