HADELICH PLAYS TCHAIKOVSKY

Friday, June 14, 2024 at 11:15 am

Saturday, June 15, 2024 at 7:30 pm

ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL

Ken-David Masur, conductor

Augustin Hadelich, violin

PROGRAM

BORIS LYATOSHYNSKY

Grazhyna, Opus 58

JEAN SIBELIUS

Symphony No. 7 in C major, Opus 105

INTERMISSION

PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

Concerto in D major for Violin and Orchestra, Opus 35

I. Allegro moderato

II. Canzonetta: Andante

III. Finale: Allegro vivacissimo

Augustin Hadelich, violin

The 2023.24 Classics Series is presented by the UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND and ROCKWELL AUTOMATION.

The length of this concert is approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Guest Artist Biographies

AUGUSTIN HADELICH

Augustin Hadelich is one of the great violinists of our time. Known for his phenomenal technique, insightful and persuasive interpretations, and ravishing tone, he appears extensively around the world’s foremost concert stages. He has performed with all the major American orchestras, as well as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Concertgebouworkest, London Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, and many other eminent ensembles.

In the 2023.24 season, Hadelich performs the German premiere of Donnacha Dennehy’s Violin Concerto, composed for him, together with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin as part of Musikfest Berlin. He is soloist at the season opening concerts of the Orchestre National de France and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Important debuts take him to Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestra dell’ Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, and the NDR Radiophilharmonie. Further invitations include the Barcelona Symphony, Danish National Symphony, and Finnish Radio Symphony orchestras, the Netherlands Philharmonic and Brussels Philharmonic orchestras, Philharmonia Zürich, and Tonkünstler-Orchester. In North America, he plays with The Cleveland Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, as well as the symphony orchestras in San Francisco, St. Louis, San Diego, Houston, Indianapolis, New Jersey, and Vancouver. In Asia, he is a guest with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Taiwan Philharmonic and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras. In addition to his orchestral engagements, he gives solo recitals in Italy, Germany, and the U.S.

Hadelich’s catalogue of recordings covers a wide range of the violin literature. In 2016, he received the Grammy Award for “Best Classical Instrumental Solo” for his recording of Dutilleux’s violin concerto L’arbre des songes. A recording of Paganini’s 24 Caprices was released by Warner Classics in 2018. This was followed in 2019 by recordings of the Brahms and Ligeti concertos, his second album as an exclusive artist for the label. He received an Opus Klassik Award in 2021 for his recording Bohemian Tales, featuring Dvořák’s violin concerto, recorded with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. His recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas was also enthusiastically received by the press and nominated for a Grammy Award. In his latest recording, Recuerdos, he devotes himself to works by Britten, Prokofiev, and Sarasate, together with the WDR Sinfonieorchester.

Hadelich, a dual American-German citizen born in Italy to German parents, studied with Joel Smirnoff at New York’s Juilliard School. He achieved a major career breakthrough in 2006 by winning the International Violin Competition in Indianapolis. His accomplishments continued with the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2009, a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2011, an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter (UK) in December 2017, and being named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America in 2018.

In June 2021, Augustin Hadelich was appointed professor in the practice of violin to the faculty of the Yale School of Music. He plays a violin by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù from 1744, known as the “Leduc, ex-Szeryng” on loan from the Tarisio Trust.

Program notes by Elaine Schmidt

BORIS LYATOSHYNSKY

Born 3 January 1895; Zhytomyr, Ukraine

Died 15 April 1968; Kyiv, Ukraine

Grazhyna, Opus 58

Composed: 1955

First performance: Unknown

Last MSO performance: MSO Premiere

Instrumentation: 2 flutes; piccolo; 2 oboes; English horn; 2 clarinets; bass clarinet; 2 bassoons; contrabassoon; 4 horns; 3 trumpets; 2 trombones; bass trombone; tuba; timpani; percussion (cymbals, large drum, tabor, tam-tam, triangle, xylophone); harp; strings

Approximate duration: 17 minutes

Composer, conductor, and educator Boris Lyatoshynsky is viewed today as the father of contemporary Ukrainian music. Born in northern Ukraine, he was educated at the Kyiv Conservatory, where he later taught. He also held a teaching position at the Moscow Conservatory from 1935–1938 and 1941–1944, while still teaching in Kyiv. Before he began his musical training in Kyiv, he studied law. Lyatoshynsky wrote symphonies, symphonic poems, and operas, as well as shorter-form orchestral works. He also wrote chamber music and some solo piano pieces. Starting out with tonal, lyrical writing, and then moving into an Impressionist period, Lyatoshynsky moved on to atonal writing. After about 1929, he began delving into Ukrainian national music, flavored with folk songs and other music of Ukraine, and built of relatively simple harmonies. Like his contemporaries Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev, he experienced repeated issues with Soviet authorities during his career.

Lyatoshynsky’s works were not widely known outside Ukraine until recordings introduced them to the world in fairly recent years. Written in 1955, Grazhyna was called a “symphonic ballad” (think tone poem) by Lyatoshynsky. It is based on a poem of the same name, written by the great Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, relating the story of the 12th-century Lithuanian noblewoman who donned her husband’s clothing and armor and went into battle to vanquish an invading enemy, before she was killed by that enemy. Lyatoshynsky’s piece, written to mark the centenary of Mickiewicz’s death, moves from somber moments to vivid battle scenes. The piece is colorful, evocative, and quite powerful. Written just two years after Joseph Stalin’s death, it is hailed as one of Lyatoshynsky’s masterworks. Grazhyna was featured on the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine’s tour of the United Kingdom in 2023, for which the orchestra rehearsed in Ukraine during frequent air raids.

JEAN SIBELIUS

Born 8 December 1865; Hämeenlinna, Finland (then part of the Russian Empire)

Died 20 September 1957; Järvenpää, Finland

Symphony

No. 7 in C major, Opus 105

Composed: 1915 – 2 March 1924

First performance: 24 March 1924; Stockholm, Sweden; Jean Sibelius, conductor; Stockholm Concert Society

Last MSO performance: 21 November 2015; Lawrence Renes, conductor

Instrumentation: 2 flutes (1st and 2nd doubling on piccolo); 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 4 horns; 3 trumpets; 3 trombones; timpani; strings

Approximate duration: 21 minutes

Jean Sibelius is remembered as a national hero in his homeland of Finland and is often referred to as the most notable composer in Scandinavia’s history. Finland celebrates its version of Flag Day, as well as Finnish Music Day, on his birthday. Sibelius received his musical training in Helsinki, after a brief stint of law studies, and continued his musical training in Berlin and Vienna. Composing was not Sibelius’s original musical goal. He played the violin quite well in his youth and dreamed of becoming a great violinist. He eventually auditioned, albeit unsuccessfully, for the Vienna Philharmonic before turning his attention and energy to composition.

Sibelius began early work on his seventh and last symphony in 1918, while still working on his fifth and sixth symphonies. Although he wrote about his seventh symphony in a letter, describing it as a three-movement piece and including clear descriptions of the movements, the final form of the symphony became something quite different. It became a tone poem, about 20 minutes in length. Played without pause, it is divided by tempo changes into 11 sections. He initially gave it the title Fantasia sinfonica No. 1. He conducted its premiere under that title and seemingly intended to write a second piece of similar structure. But he changed the title to Symphony No. 7 (in einem Satze [“in one movement”]) so that it would be included in lists of his other symphonies. He never wrote a Fantasia sinfonica No. 2

Sibelius wrote a bit more music after completing his Symphony No. 7, but then effectively retired from composing. He revisited a few pieces in his retirement but wrote almost nothing new in the last 30 years of his life. When asked why he was no longer composing, he would say that he had composed enough.

PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

Born 7 May 1840; Votkinsk, Russia

Died 6 November 1893; Saint Petersburg, Russia

Concerto

in D major for Violin and Orchestra, Opus 35

Composed: March – April 1878

First performance: 4 December 1881; Hans Richter, conductor; Adolph Brodsky, violin; Vienna Philharmonic

Last MSO performance: 30 September 2018; Yaniv Dinur, conductor; Vadim Gluzman, violin

Instrumentation: 2 flutes; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 4 horns; 2 trumpets; timpani; strings

Approximate duration: 33 minutes

To say that Tchaikovsky’s only violin concerto got off to an inauspicious start is to significantly undersell how much some who heard the premiere disliked it — the same reception his Piano Concerto in B-flat minor received. At the premiere performance of the violin concerto, the violinist was applauded, but the audience hissed at the piece itself, and this was after the violinist for whom the piece was written repeatedly put off premiering it. The renowned music critic Edward Hanslick, who heard the premiere of the piece in Vienna, minced no words when he followed a vitriolic description of the piece with the comment, “Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto for the first time confronts us with the hideous idea that there may be compositions whose stink one can hear.”

The concerto’s dismal reception needs to be viewed in the context of time, place, and personalities. Tchaikovsky wrote the concerto in Switzerland, while recovering from a disastrous two-month marriage and his deep depression over it. His friend, violinist Iosif Kotek, who was visiting him in Switzerland as he wrote the concerto, got to know the piece and thought very highly of it. Unfortunately, Tchaikovsky dedicated the piece to Leopold Auer, who called the solo part “unplayable” and eventually declined to premiere it. As a result, the piece was premiered in Vienna in 1881 by violinist Adolph Brodsky.

Tchaikovsky referred to Vienna as an “unsympathetic” place for the premiere with good reason. The Viennese held a rather dim view of Russia and Russians. Hanslick’s use of the word “vulgarity” is viewed today as his dismissive comment about all things Russian. Despite its rocky start in the world, the elegant, expressive concerto, which is still a technically daunting piece to play, is a favorite of audiences around the world.