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A Resplendent Retro Evening New York
Wu Tsai Theater, David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center
11/20/2025 - & November 21, 22, 2025
Sebastian Fagerlund: Stonework
Samuel Barber: Violin Concerto, Opus 14
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Opus 43
Augustin Hadelich (Violinist)
New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Dima Slobodeniouk (Conductor)
A. Hadelich/D. Slobodeniouk (© Suxiao Yang/Elisardojm)
“Most composers bore me because most composers are boring.”
Samuel Barber
“I have always been interested in ritualistic and primeval things.”
Sebastian Fagerlund
The New York Philharmonic went totally retro this week, virtually anachronistic. And I loved every minute.
Here was music from Finnish composer Sebastian Fagerlund’s Stonework written 60 years after Boulez’ dodecaphonia. And Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, an update of the (then) 70‑year old Bruch Concerto ignoring Alban Berg’s groundbreaking Concerto written and re‑composed while Barber was laboring at his Romantic‑era work.
As for the Sibelius Second Symphony of 1902, Schoenberg had already finished Pelleas und Melisande, Stravinsky was on the cusp of Firebird.
And how did the audience respond to time-warped selections? Did they hiss, stomp out, demand their money back?
Quite the opposite. And I was happy to join them for an evening of essential music.
Granted, the magnet of the concert was German Italian‑born Augustin Hadelich. He teaches now at the Yale School of Music (when not concertizing), where his student obviously must have a special devotion. In a performance of well‑dressed artists, he danced on stage in all black, preparing to show off his well‑earned genius.
Example: for an encore, Mr. Hadelich eschewed the usual solo Bach stuff. Instead he delivered his own version of the Bluegrass Orange Blossom Special, creating a crazy set of variations all around a one‑string drone.
His major contribution was, of course, the Barber Concerto. Most listeners come away with the finger-frightening finale Presto in moto perpetuo. Was this merely a Presto? Only prestissimo is speedier, and Hadelich (like most fiddlers) was hardly averse to that tempo.
Ditto for the first-movement opening measures. Along with Beethoven’s drum‑taps and Berg’s tone‑row, violin concertos bring out the most imaginative starts. Barber’s start was as romantic as any 19th Century piece. Mr. Hadelich played it technically brilliantly. Yet this was a cool rendition, as the soloist realized the material wasn’t that great. But the orchestral climax made up for music which not even Augustin Hadelich could rescue. In fact, Russian‑born conductor Dima Slobodeniouk gave the orchestra an extra punch by his own outstretched arms.
The Andante needed no rescuing. Mr. Hadelich could finally become the most eloquent soloist. A lovely oboe solo by Frank Rosenwein, followed by a violin which was never ultra‑romantic but whose notes were deep, careful and utterly gorgeous.
As written above, the finale was a show-stopper. Mr. Hadelich tore through the music effortlessly, with clarity and even piquancy.
By the way. Hadelich’s January 5’s solo recital will be the opposite of this stunner. Two fantasies by Telemann, a Bach partita and a few more show‑stoppers, from Ysaÿe and Paganini. Count me in!
The program began and ended with music from Finland. Both were nature pieces, both were suitably impressive.
S. Fagerlund (© Jamjos)
Sebastian Fagerlund is apparently Finland’s most popular serious composer, and for good reason. The first section of Stonework, part of a trilogy, was blatantly shocking. A held note, first by strings and harp, then developing (keeping that same note) into a second section, which resembled one of Britten’s Peter Grimes Interludes.
Mr. Fagerlund grew up on an island off Finland, and we had here–amid long hypnotizing lines–the almost literal cries of water birds. Yes, the cooing, the seabird squawking, Yet if it was auditorily literal, the music created a frozen picture. Wingbeats against a background of glacial, sustained chords.
And these fading into an eternal silent end.
Yes, it was retro, Sibelius redux. But the musical expressiveness gave new purpose to the endless Finnish taiga.
The Sibelius Second Symphony tears apart any habitual concert‑goer. One is tempted for, say–like Moldau or La Valse–“Not another one”. Or, “Wow, I didn’t realize it was so good.”
Maestro Slobodeniouk made it sound terrific. Not particularly eloquent or romantic. But with those big sweeping measures which–like Stonework–showed a passion for nature and music which is quintessentially Finnish.
Funny, after traveling a month in Finland, my memories are sometimes of the bleak landscape. Listening to Mr. Slobodeniouk, I saw in the Sibelius music elemental cataclysms, northern forests inhabited by more ghosts and trolls than in Norway.
One could express this with moody austere gestures. Conductor Slobodeniouk instead gave it an exciting vigor. And like the Finnish work which started the concert, one wanted to return to Suomi and painting the austere landscape into a vista of birds, drama and poetry.
Harry Rolnick
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