Concert review: Augustin Hadelich (violin) Philadelphia Orchestra/Dalia Stasevska

Projecting with focus and quietude is an art, which was Augustin Hadelich’s primary strength in this reading of Barber’s Violin Concerto, with gentle companionship from conductor Dalia Stasevska and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

His intimacy in the initial two movements was breathtaking. For a near-silent audience (elusive these days), the violinist urged them to lean in closer, to hear the composer’s strains as a comforting embrace. My vantage point showed his miraculously straight bow arm, making the most of his instrument, the 1744 ‘Leduc, ex-Szeryng’ violin by Guarneri ‘del Gesù’.

For their part, Stasevska and the orchestra tempered the sometimes luxuriant textures so that Hadelich’s whispers could always be heard. Even the meteoric finale was done without bombast: Hadelich wears his virtuosity lightly.

As an encore, he launched into his own arrangement of ‘Orange Blossom Special’, in which he effectively morphs into a Southern US fiddler, and not surprisingly, it brought down the house.

To open came John Adams’s Short Ride in a Fast Machine, a fine vehicle for the orchestra’s strings, but the Mahler Fourth Symphony after the interval showed off their prowess to an even greater extent. Stasevska’s face said it all, as the orchestra’s cellos floated their initial entrance.

In the second movement, concertmaster David Kim deftly swapped violins for the scordatura interludes. First associate concertmaster Juliette Kang was at the ready, handing Kim the violin from a chair placed between them. I hope that many in the audience were able to glimpse – and admire – this bit of teamwork.

Bruce Hodges