By Eileen Wingard in La Jolla, California
Augustin Hadelich proved once again, at his Saturday, March 21, recital at the Conrad, that he is one of the foremost violinists of his generation
The recital, presented by the La Jolla Music Society, with piano collaborator, Francesco Piemontesi, consisted of three sonatas by French composers, Cesar Franck (1822-1890), Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), with each preceded by a brief work that slipped into the first movement as if it were an introductory prelude.
The first major offering, the Debussy Sonata, was preceded by Recit du Chant de l’hymne precedent by Nicolas De Grigny (1672-1703), arranged from the original organ interlude by pianist Francesco Piemontesi. De Grigny was greatly admired by J.S.Bach.
The soft, delicate De Grigny work seemed like an adage to the opening movement, the subtle Allegro vivo of the Debussy Sonata. The sonata’s beginning questioning gestures, the eighth note spiccato chatter that followed and the succeeding phrases were given just the right impressionistic nuances.
The second movement, Intermede: Fatasque et leger suggested woodpeckers, interrupted by seductive four note chromatic ascensions.
The Finale: Tres anime, brought back the theme of the first movement and lunged into a triplet figure similar to an Italian tarantella.
This sonata, a form Debussy avoided most of his life, turned out to be his final work, completed in 1917, a year before he succumbed to colon cancer in March of 1918.
The next sonata on the program, by Francis Poulenc, written during the Nazi occupation of France, was inspired by the assassination of the great Spanish poet, Federico Garcia Lorca. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Lorca was murdered by Franco’s Fascists because they abhorred his homosexuality and liberal views.
The first movement, Allegro con fuoco, began with passages of ferocious-sounding anger. The second movement had the violin playing pizzicatos, imitating the sound of a guitar‘s strumming lyric lines. The third movement, Presto tragico, was again marked by violent passage work with the piano having the last say.
The Poulenc Sonata was also introduced by a brief transcription by Piemontesi, of an organ piece, this one by the French Baroque composer, Jean-Philippe Rameau {1683-1754).
It, too, was a soft confection, inspired by a talented female student of the composer named Anne-Jeanne Boucon, thus its title, La Boucon.
Following intermission came the four-movement sonata by Cesar Franck, one of the most beloved and frequently programmed works in the repertoire. This offering was also introduced by a brief piece, this time, three short movements, Od und trurig, Vivo and Aus der Ferne by Romanian-born Hungarian-Jewish composer, Gyorgy Kurtag, who celebrated his 100th birthday this past month. All three minimalist movements lasted six minutes and the third faded away, melting into the opening passages of the Franck Sonata.
This listener would have preferred beginning each sonata with a clean slate of sound, minus the brief preludes. I would have enjoyed hearing more of Gyorgy Kurtag’s work.
What a glorious rendition of the Franck Sonata that Hadelich and Piemontesi presented. The poignant melodies were expressively projected, and the technical passages flew off their fingers with mesmerizing magic. Especially impressive were the Recitativo-Fantasia, played with improvisatory abandon, and the final movement, plumbed for all its sweetness.
Augustin Hadelich’s artistry has been recognized since his 2006 winning of the gold medal in the Indianapolis International Violin Competition. He was also awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, named “Instrumentalist of the Year,” by Musical America, received a Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo and is currently on the faculty of the Yale School of Music.
Hadelich was born to German parents in 1984 in the Tuscany area of Italy. His early violin training was from his father and in master classes from visiting violin pedagogues. He graduated from the Istituto Mascagni in Liverno and went on to do three years of graduate work at the Juilliard School in New York under the tutelage of Joel Smirnoff, violinist with the Juilliard String Quartet.
Pianist Francesco Piemontesi, was born in 1983 in Locarno, Switzerland, and studied at the Hochschule fuer Musik und Theater in Hannover, Germany under the Israeli pianist, Arie Verdi. He, like Hadelich, has performed with major orchestras and in important festivals throughout the world.
How fortunate we are that artists of this caliber perform regularly in our city under the La Jolla Music Society and the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.
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Eileen Wingard, a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts.