Award-winning violinist debuts in Napier
A Grammy award-winning violinist is to debut with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Napier.
Augustin Hadelich features in the NZSO’s Beethoven & Brahms tour coming to Napier’s Municipal Theatre on August 15.
Over the past decade the Italian-born 34 year old has entered the upper echelon of the violin world and is now a mustsee virtuoso.
“Hadelich is a singularly gifted, characterful musician who has a flair for bringing older music into the present tense,” The New Yorker said in a recent profile.
“When Hadelich first came on the scene, he was noted for his pinpoint brilliance and for his sweet, cultured, almost oldfashioned tone. It was as if a golden age violinist had jumped out of the grooves of a 78-rpm record.”
He has also been praised for his interpretations of modern composers. When he performed a Shostakovich violin concerto in theUS earlier this year, one reviewer likened him to a rock star.
“Hadelich wielded his axe, a 1723 Stradivarius, as a guitar god handles his Stratocaster, spinning a complex, emotional story on his violin.”
Hadelich has been praised for his performances of key works from the violin repertoire and in Beethoven & Brahms will play Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, the only violin concerto written by the great composer.
Beethoven & Brahms is the third of NZSO music director Edo de Waart’s 2018 Masterworks series. Edo has previously worked with Hadelich and was keen to introduce him to New Zealand audiences.
“He is a beautiful player. Beethoven’s violin concerto is not an easy concerto that every violin virtuoso can play. He’s great at it.”
The NZSO will also perform Brahms’ lush, romantic Symphony No. 2. Brahms took 20 years to write his First Symphony to a mixed response from audiences and critics. But his Second Symphony, which premiered a year later is an audience favourite.
“It’s a great symphony,” Edo says.