Violinist showcases talent in encore
By Bruce R. Millerbmiller@siouxcityjournal.com | Posted: Sunday, November 09, 2008
There's a great by-product of that Siouxland staple, the standing ovation. It's the encore.
Occasionally, an artist offers an additional piece in thanks and the audience gets a performance that's even better than the one that inspired it.
Such was the case Saturday night when 24-year-old violinist Augustin Hadelich played Paganini's Caprice No. 21 at the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra concert.
Filled with passion, life and energy, it showed just how talented the Italian newcomer is.
The scheduled piece -- Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 -- was pretty showy, too. But you could see why it isn't trotted out very often. Little more than a violin solo with orchestral buttons, it seemed like a straitjacket, keeping Hadelich from showing what he could do. Frequently, he was forced to compete with the French horns and fight with the strings. Every one of his notes, though, was crisp, clear and passionate. Hadelich is a musician with great breadth and a lot of soul. He made the audience care about a so-so work and got a reaction that, probably, was surprising to him, too.
Guest Conductor Alexander Platt did his best to keep the two forces united. Still, he showed his greatest strength with another lesser-known piece, Sibelius' Six Pieces from Pelleas and Melisande.
With that, Platt was able to bring the orchestra to a hush. His ability to temper each of the instruments was brilliant. The work? Melodramatic and repetitive. But Platt knew how to get the most from a soloist and convince the audience it had been missing something by not knowing Sebelius' work.
Platt, a chatty sort, fit nicely with the orchestra, particularly when he suggested the closer, Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, reminded him of the Woodbury County Courthouse, a masterpiece of the prairie style of architecture.
While the work's opening had some timing problems (and a troublesome horn part), it hit enough highs to comfort those tired with the unfamiliar. A Beethoven hit, in fact, was a good way to end the evening.
But Hadelich's performance -- in the encore -- was what made it worthwhile.
An encore to the encore? That might have made it even better.
Occasionally, an artist offers an additional piece in thanks and the audience gets a performance that's even better than the one that inspired it.
Such was the case Saturday night when 24-year-old violinist Augustin Hadelich played Paganini's Caprice No. 21 at the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra concert.
Filled with passion, life and energy, it showed just how talented the Italian newcomer is.
The scheduled piece -- Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 -- was pretty showy, too. But you could see why it isn't trotted out very often. Little more than a violin solo with orchestral buttons, it seemed like a straitjacket, keeping Hadelich from showing what he could do. Frequently, he was forced to compete with the French horns and fight with the strings. Every one of his notes, though, was crisp, clear and passionate. Hadelich is a musician with great breadth and a lot of soul. He made the audience care about a so-so work and got a reaction that, probably, was surprising to him, too.
Guest Conductor Alexander Platt did his best to keep the two forces united. Still, he showed his greatest strength with another lesser-known piece, Sibelius' Six Pieces from Pelleas and Melisande.
With that, Platt was able to bring the orchestra to a hush. His ability to temper each of the instruments was brilliant. The work? Melodramatic and repetitive. But Platt knew how to get the most from a soloist and convince the audience it had been missing something by not knowing Sebelius' work.
Platt, a chatty sort, fit nicely with the orchestra, particularly when he suggested the closer, Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, reminded him of the Woodbury County Courthouse, a masterpiece of the prairie style of architecture.
While the work's opening had some timing problems (and a troublesome horn part), it hit enough highs to comfort those tired with the unfamiliar. A Beethoven hit, in fact, was a good way to end the evening.
But Hadelich's performance -- in the encore -- was what made it worthwhile.
An encore to the encore? That might have made it even better.
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