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BREAKING NEWS: VANCOUVERSUN.COM
I THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2013
MUSIC I PREVIEW
Violinist is no standard-issue virtuoso Enigmatic musician Augustin Hadelich blazes his own unorthodox musical trail
DAVID GORDON DUKE SPECIAL TO THE SUN
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alling violinist Augustin Hadelich something of an enigma isn't meant as condescension in any way. I can think of no young fiddle player at the moment whose work is more intriguing. Readers inclined to see what I mean can check him out Sunday afternoon at the Chan Centre, together with pia nist Joyce Yang, in a recital pro gram that is rich but more than a little quirky. Neither Hadelich's career tra jectory nor his performing and recording projects suggest the expected paths to success in today's classical music world. Sure, he's a competition win ner, a regular performer on the North American and Euro pean circuits and a recipient of the ultra-prestigious Buitoni Busoni award - a prize that recognizes exceptional talent at the start of a performer's career. But other aspects of the Hadelich phenomenon are more unexpected. At a time when younger and younger performers are reg�larly her alded as the next great or even super-great virtuosi, Hadelich is pushing 30, yet still mak ing his debuts with the world's great orchestras. He remains very much a young and a devel oping artist, but he no longer counts as a prodigy. Then there is the question of his musical lineage. As his surname suggests, his parents are German, yet he grew up in a Tuscan vineyard; he stud ied at the Istituto Mascagni in Livorno, then finished his training at the world's most renowned (notorious?) talent factory, New York's Juilliard School. I used to be able to spot
ROSALIE O"CONNOR FILES
At a time when younger musicians are regularly hailed as the next great thing, intriguing violinist Augustin Hadelich, 30, a Julliard product, is still making debuts with the great orchestras of the world.
Juilliard products pretty quickly from obvious clues: suave sound, glossy program ming, and, more often than not, aggressive commercial savvy. But Hadelich refuses to fit that mould. He is anything but a generic fiddle player on the rise. In 2009, the Wash ington Post's Anne Midgette, no pushover as critics go, pos ited that he might be "the musi cal equivalent of tennis's Wil liams sisters, who also took an unorthodox route to great success. Certainly he is not a standard-issue virtuoso. He
has tremendous technical flu ency but he reaches far beyond that, putting it in the ser vice of articulate, even poetic communication." For me it's also about what he chooses to play as much as how he plays. His repertoire c:hoices are individualistic to the point of near-recklessness. He has a list of more than four dozen concertos and works with orchestra that he's able to pres ent, and it's a list that grows annually. And it is by no means restricted to popular favou rites: Ades, Berg, Ligeti and
. Schnitke concertos are right up there along with Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky. His record ing projects focus on high con cepts like the fin de siecle con nections between Paris and Russia, or the Telemann fanta sias for solo violin or the com plete violin concertos of Franz Joseph Haydn. This will be Hadelich's third Vancouver appearance. I very much regret that I missed his first recital - but I sure heard all about it afterward. After his Vancouver Symphony Orches tra debut in 2011, I wrote: "In
the course of any given sea son, we see an astonishing assortment of talent on dis play. Yet every so often a per former appears who just seems extra special. This was dem onstrated last weekend when the young violinist Augus tin Hadelich played with the VSO. His sound is intense but refined. As well as power, there is a real sweetness to his tone, and he's got lots and lots of technical prowess. Then there's his flawless intonation. I think I'd recognize his sound pretty quickly - something
that's increasingly at issue in a generation of performers who play in a well-schooled musi cal Esperanto." Listening to Hadelich is all about individualism, charac- · ter, musicianship, and, above all, the choices he makes as a performer - amply reflected in the list of works he brings to us Sunday afternoon. Like pia nists, violinists have an embar rassment of riches to choose from when constructing a recital. Alas, performers often choose to play it safe, program ming from the same short list of surefire choices. Safe and, too often, rather dull. Sunday's repertoire is a sur prise - but where Hadelich is concerned it's no surprise at all. There's Schumann, no stranger to concert platforms here or anywhere; but I can't remem ber the last time I encountered one of his violin sonatas (here No. 1 in A Minor, written in · 1851). There's Ravel's blustery send-up of the Gypsy idiom, Tziganne (1924) - a favourite, true, but good fun and a piece which demonstrates technical mettle extremely well. There's a relatively new work by Andre Previn, with the intriguing title of Tango Song and Dance (1997). There's a 1983 work by the late Japanese star composer Toru Takemitsu, Far Beyond Chrysanthemums and Novem ber Fog. And there's Leos Jan acek's crazy, wonderful Violin· Sonata (1922). In short, all the elements for a recital of exceptional interest . - and a demonstration of one of the strongest, most exciting musical personalities of the . moment. Augustin Hadelich Vancouver Recital Society
Feb. 24, 3 p.m, I Chan Centre Tickets: $20 to $7S, vanrecital.com
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