Tim Tai

Internationally acclaimed violinist Augustin Hadelich will perform Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto at Carnegie Hall alongside Yale Philharmonia today. 

This past Wednesday, Hadelich performed the Violin Concerto at Woolsey Hall. He said he has grown a profoundly personal connection to the piece since he first performed it in 2012, and the themes of the piece — militarism, war, grief and, most of all, hope — are especially pertinent “in light of recent events.”

“No matter how many times I perform this piece, it is a devastating musical journey, and hard to find words at the end,” Hadelich said.

Hadelich pointed to the final moments of the concerto, which he believes reflects Britten’s denouncement of war. Without a satisfying resolution, the piece concludes with a drawn-out suspension between D major and D minor.

The concerto is technically demanding and has it all, from double-stops and triple-stops of every kind to difficult artificial double-stop harmonics.

Hadelich, however, finds beauty in these challenges.

“The struggle of the performer is almost the point, mirroring the emotional struggle of the music itself,” Hadelich said. 

But on Wednesday, from the audience’s ears, Hadelich’s technical struggles seemed nonexistent. If his biggest musical challenge was to sustain the dramatic arc of the third movement and transcend the listener through different stages of grief, he executed the movement flawlessly.

Laurel Gagnon MUS ’25, Hadelich’s student, found his interpretation of Britten’s concerto to hold great emotional depth and the third movement to be especially transformative. Erin Nishi ’25, a Yale Symphony Orchestra member and an aspiring violinist, was moved by the way Hadelich sensitively captured the beauty and emotional complexity of the music.

“Woolsey is a place I’ve been so fortunate to rehearse and perform as a student musician, and hearing one of my musical inspirations transform the space with his sound was incredibly inspiring,” said Nishi.

Paired with the concerto in the first half was a reduction of Joan Tower’s Concerto for Orchestra, arranged into suite form by Peter Oundjian, the faculty conductor of Yale Philharmonia. 

The original 30-minute long work was shortened to a 12-minute concert opener, which still expressed many thematic elements from Tower’s writing and achieved an equal textural and orchestral triumph. 

In the second half, the Philharmonia performed Hector Berlioz’s epic, hour-long Symphonie Fantastique. Berlioz’s symphony blends aesthetic elements from past and present, making it a perfect finale for a diverse concert.

Hadelich and Oundjian’s Yale Philharmonia will bring the same program to Carnegie Hall on Monday. One of the most historic music halls in the world, Carnegie welcomes Hadelich again, following his performance with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s Bach Festival last June.

Despite having been on the road for the past few days, Hadelich remains optimistic about the upcoming performance, given the success of Wednesday’s concert. 

“It is awe-inspiring to stand on Carnegie’s stage and think about everyone who has performed there,” Hadelich said. “I can’t wait to share the stage of Carnegie Hall with the talented students of Yale School of Music.”

According to Gagnon, Hadelich’s performances are an opportunity to see his teaching come to life.

“Hadelich is an incredible teacher and mentor, and it’s exciting to see him put all of his advice into action in the real world after working with him privately in lessons,” she said.

Tickets for the concert in Carnegie Hall start at $29.

ORION KIM
Orion Kim covers admissions, financial aid and the School of Music. He is a freshman in Ezra Stiles College from St. Paul, Minnesota, majoring in Ethics, Politics and Economics.