Interview
Augustin Hadelich in conversation with Raimar Orlovsky Marek Janowski and Augustin Hadelich
Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony is a work that gives the Berliner Philharmoniker an opportunity to demonstrate the full range of their music-making: from intimate chamber music passages to powerful tuttis. Like Bruckner’s symphony, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto also comes from the Romantic period, but takes us into a much lighter sound world. The conductor is Marek Janowski, who is held in high regard in this repertoire. As the soloist, Augustin Hadelich returns to the Philharmoniker.
Arthur Nikisch, chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker from 1895 to 1922, established Anton Bruckner’s music with the orchestra. As an 18-year-old violinist, he had played in the world premiere of Bruckner’s Second Symphony under the baton of the composer and ultimately stood at the conductor’s desk himself when the Seventh was premiered in Leipzig in 1884. The work marked Bruckner’s late breakthrough to national and international recognition. To this day it is one of his most popular pieces. Unlike most of Bruckner’s symphonies, the finale is relatively short, allowing the melodic and lyrical first movement and the adagio – one of Bruckner’s most poignant slow movements – to take centre stage. Between the conception and completion of this adagio, Bruckner learnt of the death of Richard Wagner, who he greatly admired. The symphony is also linked to his “immortal master” through the use of so-called “Wagner tubas”. Marek Janowski has already performed Bruckner’s Fourth and Sixth Symphonies with the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Like Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto was also premiered by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. The piece quickly established itself as one of the most significant contributions to the genre and is one of the most wonderful compositions in the oeuvre of the former Gewandhaus kapellmeister. Arnold Schoenberg also recognised its special quality: “In the happy union of noble virtuosity and poetic meaningfulness of the content, it has never been surpassed.” The soloist is the German-American violinist Augustin Hadelich, who appears here with the Philharmoniker for the second time after his successful debut in 2021.
Berliner Philharmoniker
Marek Janowski
Augustin Hadelich
© 2024 Berlin Phil Media GmbH
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