Augustin Hadelich

Markus Stenz

Aspen Festival Orchestra

Aspen Music Festival

The Milwaukee Shepherd Express conjectured that he “well may be the best violinist in the world. [His] gorgeous sound is ample and rich always. Every detail is played with perfectly clear intent.” Augustin Hadelich’s astonishing technique, eloquent phrasing, and seeming effortlessness inspired Donnacha Dennehy to compose his first multi-movement concerto especially for him. In Dennehy's words, “The first movement especially zooms in and out of various perspectives. I think of this aerial zooming as being essential to its nature. The second movement feels redolent of the sea to me. The sea always emerges in my music it seems. Maybe it has to do with growing up in Ireland, surrounded by water on all sides. There is a real feeling of yearning to this movement. It was written during the first lockdown of the pandemic, and I feel that a kind of desire to transcend the conditions of everyday life permeates this movement. The final movement is more earthy and cheeky. A strange, splintered, fierce jig eventually appears, and then abstractions of that start to eat away at the very fabric of the music, when the violin threatens to spiral everything out of control leading to a fierce conclusion on the very edge of what is possible!

Festival Orchestra: Wagner's "Ring," Hadelich Plays Dennehy