Virtuoso Violinist Augustin Hadelich Tours With NZSO This Month

One of the world’s most exciting violinists returns to Aotearoa New Zealand in August with concerts in Wellington, Auckland, Rotorua and Hamilton.

Grammy Award-winner Augustin Hadelich will perform Tchaikovsky’s beloved Violin Concerto with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, led for the first time by acclaimed Finnish conductor Dima Slobodeniouk.

Hadelich mesmerised New Zealanders when he first performed with the NZSO in 2018. The Waikato Times described experiencing the American-German violinist in Hamilton that year as so powerful “it had some members of the audience in tears.”

American critics have likened him to a rock star. “Hadelich wielded his axe, a 1723 Stradivarius, as a guitar god handles his Stratocaster, spinning a complex, emotional story on his violin.”

For a performance last month with the Los Angeles Philharmonic on a 1744 ‘del Gesu’ violin, “Hadelich laid it down like a boss,” said Violinist.com.

Hadelich said in an interview this year that he never tires of performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto because he always returns to it after playing other music. “It’s an exhilarating, intense experience. I think people can feel that, and I walk off stage excited, thinking it was an incredible experience for me.”

This month Warner Classics release a new Hadelich album American Road Trips, with the violinist performing works by American composers, including Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Amy Beach and John Adams.

Hadelich performs in the NZSO concerts La Mer in Wellington and Auckland and Pastoral in Rotorua and Hamilton in association with New Zealand Herald.

The Wellington and Auckland performances also feature Claude Debussy’s landmark impressionist masterpiece La Mer and Jean Sibelius’ evocative The Oceanides, which the Finnish composer completed while on an ocean liner to the United States.

In Rotorua and Hamilton, the NZSO under Maestro Slobodeniouk also perform Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony Pastoral, the great composer’s much-loved celebration of the countryside and nature.

Hailed for his exhilarating approach and energetic leadership by musicians and audiences alike, Maestro Slobodeniouk is one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation.

His many conducting engagements include the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.

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