by Daniel Hathaway
The original Cleveland Orchestra lineup this month was to have featured former and current New York Philharmonic music directors two weeks in a row, but Jaap van Zweden had to withdraw due to a family medical issue in the Netherlands. He was replaced on the weekend of October 17 by the 23-year-old Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä, who had made a sensational debut with the Orchestra last summer at Blossom, and if anything, topped that performance at Severance Hall. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Violinist Augustin Hadelich is no stranger to The Cleveland Orchestra. In July of 2014 he wowed audiences with his performance of the Sibelius Concerto at Blossom Music Center. His August 2017 interpretation of the Dvořák Concerto was a highlight of the Blossom season.
On Thursday, October 17 at 7:30 pm, Hadelich will make his Severance Hall debut with Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 2. The concert, under the direction of the young Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä, making his Severance debut as well, will also include Messiaen’s Les Offrande oubliées and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. The program will be repeated on Friday, October 18 and Saturday, October 19 at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available online.
Hadelich has always been enjoyable to talk to. But when his performance and travel schedule, along with time zone differences, made a telephone interview impossible, he suggested that I send a few questions by email.
Mike Telin: Please tell me your thoughts on the Prokofiev Concerto.
Augustin Hadelich: It is one of the most exciting and beloved violin works of the 20th century. Prokofiev was a storyteller, and this piece contains just about every character, from the lyrical and pastoral to the manic. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the New York-based conductorless ensemble, joined violinist Augustin Hadelich in an impressive program of string music by Irving Fine, Haydn, Schubert, and Tchaikovsky at Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall on Wednesday evening, March 28. Their assured playing on the Tuesday Musical series proved that you don’t always need a baton-wielding leader out in front to inspire an excellent sense of ensemble — though sometimes it can be a good idea from an interpretational point of view.
by Mike Telin
A highlight of last summer’s Cleveland Orchestra concerts at Blossom Music Center was Augustin Hadelich’s performance of Dvořák’s Violin Concerto. On Wednesday, March 28 at 7:30 pm at E.J. Thomas Hall, the 2018 Musical America Instrumentalist of the Year will return to the area as soloist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Presented by Tuesday Musical, the program will include Irving Fine’s Serious Song (lament for string orchestra), Schubert’s Rondo in A for violin and strings, Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C, and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings. A pre-concert talk by Akron Symphony bassoonist Coltan Foster begins at 6:30 pm. Tickets are available online.
“The Haydn Concerto has been one of my favorite classical pieces to play for a long time — I’m in love with it,” the 33-year-old said by telephone from Vancouver, where he was performing Bernstein’s Serenade with Bramwell Tovey and the Vancouver Symphony. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Anyone who’s still roasting that old canard about the elitism of classical music should have witnessed the scene at Blossom on Saturday evening, August 26. The immense crowd that gathered on the lawn and in the pavilion had turned out to hear The Cleveland Orchestra doing what it does best — playing great works in the orchestral repertoire with depth and brilliance, on this occasion under the Romanian-born guest conductor Cristian Măcelaru and with the German-Italian violinist Augustin Hadelich. [Read more…]
by Jarrett Hoffman
At seventeen, Cristian Măcelaru wanted to conduct. First he had to wait.
‘Keep studying violin, then we’ll talk’ was the message from conductor Larry Rachleff, who had inspired Măcelaru’s new interest at Interlochen Arts Camp.
The young violinist took the advice to heart. Now, two decades later, he’s Music Director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music; has served as Conductor-in-Residence, Associate, and Assistant Conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra; and has led subscription concerts with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic.
And on Saturday, August 26 at 8:00 pm, he’ll make his Cleveland Orchestra debut at Blossom Music Center with a program of Dvořák’s Violin Concerto and Holst’s The Planets. “I’m extremely humbled to conduct this orchestra that I’ve admired for my entire life,” he said in a recent conversation.
by Daniel Hathaway
30-year-old German-Italian violinist Augustin Hadelich is developing a reputation for stepping in to save concerts at the last minute. In 2008, on less than a week’s notice, he replaced Julian Rachlin in Prokofiev’s second concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl (an occasion when conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya was also an emergency substitute for the ailing Edo de Waart).
Then in 2010, his surprise debut with the New York Philharmonic in Vail, Colorado, involved replacing Nikolai Znaider in the Mendelssohn concerto on three days’ warning. (Hadelich was at the airport about to board a plane to Italy when he got the call).
His appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra on Saturday evening for the opening concert of its Blossom season may have been even more hastily arranged, as Renaud Capuçon’s illness and his replacement by Hadelich had to be announced in an insert to the program. [Read more…]