I have some advice for classical music lovers in Milwaukee: anytime Augustin Hadelich comes to town, get yourself to the concert hall! Hadelich well may be the best violinist in the world. He returned to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra this weekend to play the Concerto in D minor by Jean Sibelius.
This concerto can be approached as a showpiece, but this is not in Hadelich’s blood. He is too refined and elegant an artist to do anything that doesn’t deeply and organically come from the score. That includes fiery and intricate passage work, soaring melody and warm tenderness. Hadelich’s gorgeous sound is ample and rich always. Every detail is played with perfectly clear intent. In this Sibelius concerto, more drama emerged in his playing than I’ve heard from him in the past. I did not feel this was something he imposed on it, but rather, was a full rendering of the music.
Francisco Tárrega’s “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” was composed for guitar, but Hadelich made it his own in an encore by mastering seemingly impossible techniques on the violin, all played with restraint and evolved taste. It was breathtaking.
Ken-David Masur led a highly expressive account of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. It’s fun to see the big-hearted freedom with which Masur approaches music, so different from Edo de Waart’s highly disciplined conducting. Though the musicians are understandably still growing accustomed to him―a few entrances were not exactly in sync―they are responding to him with earnest and beautiful orchestral sounds.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
It was pure delight to hear the woodwinds passing around a delicious little phrase in the second movement. Both oboist Katherine Steele Young and bassoonist Catherine Chen approached the solos in the that movement with the vocal phrasing of a great singer. How wonderful the cellos sounded in featured stretches. A little detail like the staccato brass chords in the third movement made me smile; they were so well played.
The concert opened with Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s mysterious and effective Ciel d’hiver (Winter Sky), built with delicate, soft hazes of sound, with touches of high treble iciness.
