AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE

CD review: Haydn Violin Concertos (Naxos)

It would be very easy to love Augustin Hadelich's violin playing simply for his crystalline technical facility or his always-interesting singing sound, but I am partial to his long and deep sense of phrase, his sensual relationship to the pitches that really ring on his instrument, and his fresh approach to Haydn. There is something about his playing that excites my "inner violinist" (something that always seems to be at odds from my "outer violinist") in a way that no other violinist excites it. There is something unique about his playing: perhaps a purity of intent or a direct line to what is essential in music. It is difficult to describe, but it is easy to recognize.

He is able to let phrases soar in the air, making great and graceful arcs; and then he lets them land lightly, yet decisively. Hearing him play Haydn makes me happy—not a giddy kind of happy, but a balanced kind of happy. While the music is playing, I have a feeling that all is right with the world.

This recording is one of his prizes for winning the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Another prize is the use for four years of the ex-Gingold Stradivarius, the instrument that he plays here. Each component of the trio of Haydn, Hadelich, and Stradivari brings out the best in the others, and Hadelich's stunningly-beautiful cadenzas reflect (and sometimes even improve on) the best moments in these concertos.

I am impressed that he chose these three Haydn concertos for his Naxos recording. Even though they are extremely difficult to play they do not appear virtuosic to the non-violinist. Aside from the First Concerto in C, these works are not very popular. Violinists and people who play with violinists know that they all require a tremendous amount of musicianship and technical strength to play well, and they also demand an excellent accompanying orchestra, which Hadelich has in Helmm Muller-Bruhl and the Cologne Chamber Orchestra.

After hearing this recording you will agree with me that the future of great violin playing is safe and very bright in Augustin Hadelich' 24-year-old hands.

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, September/October 2008

 

 

BOSTON GLOBE

CD review: Haydn Violin Concertos (Naxos)

The performances confirm Hadelich's high talent, with rock solid intonation and phrasing in music that often makes considerable technical demands on the soloist. The concertos are less inventive works than Haydn's symphonies, and Hadelich wisely doesn't try to make more out of them than is there.

His willingness to take the music at face value is its own kind of sophistication, and confirms him as a musician worth keeping a close eye on.

BOSTON GLOBE

 

 

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

Cleveland Orchestra Debut

Lalo Symphonie Espagnole

The other musical heat-source was violinist Augustin Hadelich, who easily earned a return invitation with a smashing Cleveland debut as the soloist in Lalo's "Symphonie espagnole."

A consummate showman, Hadelich pranced over considerable technical obstacles with fluent ease, then dashed off a Paganini Caprice as an encore. But behind Hadelich's talent was a molten intensity, a determination to explore the music's passionate, earthy sides with gritty articulation and tender lyricism.

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER (August 31, 2009)

 

 

GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE

Outstanding musicianship separates Augustin Hadelich from the pack (Flying Solo)

Augustin Hadelich (born 1984) has already won acclaim for his recordings of Haydn and Telemann. Now he tackles a programme of technically challenging works, one, moreover, where each composer presents different difficulties. He meets and surmounts all obstacles, yet it's not technical wizardry that most impresses but his musicianship. He makes the musical sense of each piece crystal clear, and his playing has an inner life; each phrase, each note, is felt as it's played. The Bartók third movement, "Melodia", has constant expressive variation of tone colour and emphasis, and the sonata's Hungarian character comes out particularly strongly, due to Hadelich's idiomatic rhythmic sense.

In the Fourth Paganini Caprice, Hadelich is unusually successful in integrating the sustained music with the intervening brilliant passages, and the Ninth Caprice is delightfully buoyant - it's good to hear this piece as Paganini wrote it, without the traditional added harmonics near the end. Of the Ysaÿe sonatas, No 3 is given an appropriate sweeping narrative character, while in No 5 Hadelich maintains a beautiful tranquillity for the initial portrayal of dawn and, in the following "Danse rustique" catches exactly the poised rhythmic quality the composer asks for. The Zimmermann makes a spectacular conclusion to the recital; Hadelich has clearly grasped the full import of its intense, climactic final toccata.

GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE - December 2009

 

 

HAMBURGER ABENBLATT

Hamburg – Mendelssohn Concerto

There are quite a few highly talented string players with excellent technique, creative will and deep musicality out there, but to hold the audience spell-bound from the first note to the last, is something else again. Augustin Hadelich showed the enthusiastic audience in the Laeiszhalle how impressively this can happen: he played Mendelssohn's famous violin concerto at the Mendelssohn Anniversary concert of the Camerata Hamburg, with a compelling interpretation that effortlessly and naturally combines fiery passion, sensual sound and virtuosic elegance - as if there was no work and practicing involved in producing sounds of such captivating purity. He is a great musician already.

HAMBURGER ABENDBLATT

 

 

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Houston Symphony Debut - Mozart Concerto no. 3

[Hadelich's] playing was elegant and stylish. He probed details as a musician who produces interesting music-making. The performance overall was joyous.

Hadelich wrote his own cadenzas for the concerto. Though a bit long, they were astutely composed. They stayed true to the themes and style of the concerto but added technical tricks that weren't typical of Mozart's music. Still, they were all the more impressive for the understated ease with which Hadelich played them.

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

 

 

KÖLNISCHE RUNDSCHAU

Köln - Mozart Concertos nos. 2 and 5

With pure tone, profound expression and fine technique, the 23-year-old Augustin Hadelich was the quiet star of the newest "Meisterwerk"-concert of the Cologne Chamber Orchestra. ...He proved what great artistry on the violin is; with complete control over his Stradivari, he discovered new depth and clarity in Mozarts concertos, and the sophisticated drama in the cadenzas, i. e. in the Andante of the second concerto, was masterful.

...And he played the virtuosic encore (Paganini's Caprice no. 21) with heavenly lightness and ease. Certainly Hadelich, who has already caused great sensation in the US, will soon conquer Germany as well; the enthusiastic applause was already a sign of that. KÖLNISCHE RUNDSCHAU

 

 

LONDON TIMES

Bartok, Paganini et al: Flying Solo 

Augustin Hadelich (violin)

Now in his mid-twenties, Augustin Hadelich is fast emerging as a significant talent. This recital of music of unaccompanied solo violin, however, is a step beyond. The programme is ingeniously topped and tailed by the solo sonatas of Bartok and Bernd Alois Zimmermann. Hadelich plays each with supreme confidence, the colours vivid, his bow control as impeccable as his intonation, the overall shaping always convincing, the direction and balance of line always clear. Between these great columns, he immerses himself in three of Paganini’s 24 Caprices and in the third and fifth solo sonatas of Ysaÿe, proving that he is both a virtuoso violinist and a deeply thoughtful one.

THE SUNDAY TIMES (London) - Stephen Pettitt

 

 

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Los Angeles Philharmonic - Prokofiev Concerto no. 2

Now, the good news. Hadelich (...) is a real find. Inheriting the Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2 from Rachlin, he displayed complete command of the material. He had a sure grasp of the arching lines of the first movement and the freedom to indulge in impulsive gusts of energy without losing contact with the line. He drew a beautiful, pure, dark-shaded tone from his 1683 vintage Stradivarius, illuminating the songful stretches and shadowy flutterings of the second movement. He allowed a touch of roughness to creep into his tone in the finale, yet his rhythm was firm -- firmer than that of the orchestral accompaniment -- and he didn't neglect the movement's playfulness.

This is not a sure-fire concerto to wow a Bowl audience with, and Hadelich is not one of those showboating types who flaunt exaggerated intensity on the Bowl's huge video screens, but wow the crowd he did. And with a silken tone and dead-on multiple stops, he added an impressive solo encore, Paganini's Caprice No. 21.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

 

 

NEW YORKER

Lieber Augustin

If a layer of surface noise were added to Augustin Hadelich’s recent solo-violin recording on the Avie label, you might think you were hearing a virtuoso out of the Golden Age. Hadelich, who is twenty-five, has all the fast-fingered brilliance that modern conservatory culture requires; the musicality and the freewheeling fantasy that he brings to bear, though, cannot be taught. With the pianist Rohan De Silva, Hadelich gave a riveting recital at the Frick on Dec. 13, in which he ranged from Beethoven’s Sonata in G Major, Op. 30, No. 3, to showpieces by Sarasate and Ysaÿe, and on to Prokofiev’s Second Sonata and Alfred Schnittke’s First Sonata, from 1963. The crucial thing was the command of color: luminous sweetness in Beethoven and Prokofiev, a wide, ruddy tone in Sarasate’s “Carmen Fantasy,” and savage sounds for Schnittke, including something like electric-guitar fuzz. Hadelich shows similar versatility on the Avie disk, combining classic and modern fare. Here is a young artist with no evident limitations.

THE NEW YORKER - Alex Ross

 

 

NEW YORK TIMES

A Prized Violin and a Flair for Playing It

The violinist Augustin Hadelich plays the 1683 ex-Gingold Stradivarius, named after the eminent violinist Josef Gingold, to whom it once belonged. Mr. Hadelich, 25, was awarded temporary use of the instrument after winning the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Gingold (who founded the competition and died in 1995) was famous for the tonal beauty of his playing and, as a pedagogue, for instilling complete musicianship in his students. He would surely have approved of the brilliant recital given by Mr. Hadelich and the masterly collaborative pianist Rohan De Silva at the Frick Collection on Sunday evening.

 

Mr. Hadelich stands out amid gifted young violinists for his prodigious technique, gorgeous tone and ability to deliver well-known works with a distinctive interpretive flair. His technically dazzling and sultry rendition of Sarasate’s “Carmen Fantasy,” which concluded the program, oozed sensuality.

Mr. Hadelich plays with a singing tone that seems to communicate directly with each listener, particularly in the appealingly resonant confines of the Frick’s intimate music room.

 

[…In] Ysaÿe’s Sonata No. 3 for solo violin, “Ballade,” […] Mr. Hadelich’s burnished tone sounded particularly lovely, and he navigated the technical intricacies of this bravura showpiece with seemingly effortless virtuosity.

 

Mr. Hadelich’s accomplishments are all the more remarkable in light of his background: he was seriously injured in a fire in 1999 and needed extensive rehabilitation to regain the use of his bow arm and hand. He performs like a musician who takes nothing for granted, communicating an expressive, joyful spontaneity.

NEW YORK TIMES - Vivien Schweitzer

 

CD-Review: Flying Solo

SOLO violin recitals are, by definition, a high-wire act. The player in the spotlight is armed with an instrument that is at its best and most natural playing a single line of music but must instead wrest both melody and accompaniment from the fiddle — and sometimes, depending on the repertory, even the illusion of independent contrapuntal lines.

Augustin Hadelich seems to enjoy going it alone. After a debut recording of all the Haydn violin concertos for Naxos, he turned to Telemann’s 12 unaccompanied fantasias, also on Naxos. Now he has moved to the Avie label and offers “Flying Solo,” an appealingly idiosyncratic collection that frames three Paganini showpieces (the Caprices Nos. 4, 9 and 21) and two of Ysaÿe’s short sonatas with more grandly scaled, harmonically thorny scores by Bartok and Bernd Alois Zimmermann.

 

Actually the Bartok and Zimmermann sonatas have more in common than modernist angst. Bach’s spirit hovers over Bartok’s Sonata for Solo Violin (1944). Opening with a Tempo di Ciaccona that evokes the Chaconne of Bach’s Partita No. 2, it then follows a Baroque formal design, with a fugue, an adagio and a presto. And though Bartok quickly breaks free of Bach’s orbit, distant flickers of his influence return throughout the work.

 

Zimmermann’s Sonata (1951), written in tribute to Bartok, makes occasional Baroque allusions as well, though filtered through an assertive angularity. Mr. Hadelich plays both with an exacting focus, an unerring dramatic sense and a rich, beautiful tone. He does as much for the Paganini and Ysaÿe works. The hunting calls that open Paganini’s Caprice No. 9 have a playful deftness that gives way to an easygoing but winning virtuosity. And Mr. Hadelich makes the most of the dark introspection in Ysaÿe’s Sonatas Nos. 3 and 5.

NEW YORK TIMES - Allan Kozinn

 

CD review: Haydn Violin Concertos (Naxos)

The talented young violinist Augustin Hadelich plays the three surviving works... Mr. Hadelich (supplying his own cadenzas) offers fiery, nuanced and expressive playing, with the conductor Helmut Müller-Brühl eliciting spirited performances from the Cologne Chamber Orchestra.

NEW YORK TIMES - Vivien Schweitzer

 

Carnegie Hall Debut with the Fort Worth Symphony

The young soloists, both notable emerging artists, played impressively: the brilliant violinist Augustin Hadelich [...] and the Berlin-born cellist Alban Gerhardt, who combines lush sound with agile technique.

NEW YORK TIMES - Anthony Tommasini

 

 

NÜRNBERGER ZEITUNG

Nürnberg - Beethoven Concerto

On the stage at the Meistersingerhalle last Friday, we saw in the person of young Augustin Hadelich a soloist who is clearly on the threshold of a brilliant international career. It is several years since this violinist, now aged just 25, first appeared before the public as a child prodigy, so, although still so young, he already has a long experience as a musician under his belt.

This combination of maturity and a youthfully emotional approach proved a winner for Beethoven’s great concerto. Hadelich’s gleaming tone, glowing as if from within, and his infinite yet richly varied legato coloured the expansive opening movement with romantic subjectivity and demonstrated Beethoven’s skill in creating his own space within the formal confines of Viennese Classicism. The way Hadelich played the cadenza on his 1683 “Ex-Gingold” Stradivarius was so passionate, intense and poetic that it drew spontaneous applause at the end of the movement. The Larghetto was interpreted with tender sensitivity and subtle nuances, and he achieved similar differentiations in the whirlwind of the virtuosic finale despite the flying speed of his nimble bow. His passionate yet deeply reflective musicality inspired the players of the Nuremberg Philharmonic too, and Christof Prick was sensitive enough to leave the orchestra space for organic dialogues with the soloist.

This superlative performance received a rapturous ovation, which Hadelich acknowledged by playing Paganini’s Caprice no. 17 as an encore.

NÜRNBERGER ZEITUNG - October 2009

 

 

STUTTGARTER NACHRICHTEN

CD-Review: Flying Solo

The Ex-Gingold Stradivarius once belonged to the famous violinist and teacher Joseph Gingold […], who gave the first performance of Ysaÿe’s third solo sonata (“Ballade”) on it. Hadelich played it – and how! The jubilation in the rising figure at the start was like life celebrating itself. Ysaÿe’s Sonata no. 5 was pure madness. Joie de vivre – one almost hesitates to put it in German: Daseinsfreude, the joy of living.

[…] In the Caprices nos 4, 9 and 21 Paganini emerges from the shadows of “devil’s violinist” as a remarkable composer and reveals the agonies of unfulfilled desire, passionately depicted. Hadelich plays these with greater seriousness than is usually the case; he does nothing merely for show. In Bartók’s great sonata, likewise, superficial brilliance has no place; the cantabile element is part of an existential desire for self-expression. Playing the violin is communication, and everything in Hadelich’s probing playing happens because of what is in the music. He brings it to an incandescent glow, but not a destructive one. On listening impartially to five recent recordings by aspiring and indeed much-feted young violinists, we have to report that none of them has such a substantial tone, so imaginative an approach to instrumental sound and such timeless beauty.

STUTTGARTER NACHRICHTEN

 

 

STRINGS MAGAZINE

Indianapolis Violin competition

Hadelich, and his deeply emotive playing, dominated the competition. In addition to winning the overall event, he took the best performance of the commissioned work by Bright Sheng, “A Night at the Chinese Opera;” the best performance of a Beethoven sonata; the best performance of a Sonata other than Beethoven (he played a terrific Bartók Solo Sonata); the best performance of solo Bach; the best encore; the best classical concerto; and the best romantic concerto.

STRINGS MAGAZINE (November 2006 issue) 

 

 

THE STRAD

Indianapolis Violin Competition

German Augustin Hadelich showed his superlative musicianship in a daring performance of Mozart’s lesser-known Concerto No. 2, in which he presented cadenzas of striking originality…

Hadelich proved himself a masterful musician in a searing performance of the beloved Bartók [concerto no. 2] that left both audience and orchestra cheering.

THE STRAD (December 2006 issue)

 

 

WASHINGTON POST

Kennedy Center Recital 

Augustin Hadelich is in touch with the sunny side of a violin. He can dig in; he can probe; he can make the instrument bark when the music calls for it. But his default seems to be the warm lyrical joy of lilting melody.

The 24-year-old made his Kennedy Center recital debut on Sunday evening with a program that included one from every column of the virtuoso menu, from Bartók's final, wrenching, unaccompanied sonata to the fireworks of Sarasate's "Carmen Fantasy." But the opening Beethoven Sonata No. 8 in G set the general tone: as happy and un-neurotic a piece as Beethoven produced, certainly in these hands.

...Certainly he is not a standard-issue virtuoso. He has tremendous technical fluency, but he reaches far beyond that, putting it in the service of articulate, even poetic communication.

The Bartók, for me a highlight, contained a universe of different kinds of sounds: feathery little bow strokes; a gritty bark at the beginning of the second movement's challenging fugue; a thin gentle line, clear and singing, in the lyrical meditation at the heart of the third movement. Intense, even searing, as his performance was, it was never a downer; there was an inner sense that this particular journey came out all right in the end, despite a slip of the bow at one point in the final movement.

...The Prokofiev, another generally wholesome piece, bracing and smacking sometimes of toy soldiers, was followed by the Sarasate, which Hadelich made into something more than pure fluff. He conveys a sense that music is worthwhile; and his sunniness derives, perhaps, from bearing talent like a gift, rather than a weight upon his shoulders.

WASHINGTON POST - Anne Midgette