Ravinia 2024 Issue 2

music.” Up until then, he had had rela- tively little experience in the genre, but “when I went to the Steans Institute, my goal was just to play great chamber music with great players, for inspiring coaches.” Although the majority of his schedule is now solo appearances with orchestras, Hadelich said, “chamber music remains the foundation of my playing.” For that reason, he said, “I don’t think chamber music programs are career-building, per se . They are more in the category of musician-building .” Hadelich’s turn as a soloist with the CSO will be in the Mendelssohn con- certo, a staple of the repertoire since its premiere in 1845. “Despite its wonderful orchestration and beautiful, rich orches- tral parts, the violinist is the hero of the story, the center of attention,” he said. “The violin enters straight away at the start of the piece, with great urgency. The lyrical moments are the highlights for me. For example, the opening of the piece is unforgettable, it’s such a soaring, beautiful melody, unfolding over an anx- ious heartbeat rhythm in the orchestra.” Mendelssohn was also a prolific chamber music composer, and Hadelich has played the Octet frequently. “But every piece of his that I played helped me understand the concerto and him better,” he said. And that approach can be extended across all repertoire and all composers. “I discovered eventually that there isn’t all that much difference between cham- ber music and concerto playing,” Hade- lich said. “The hall might be bigger, but a soloist still has to be aware of, listen to, react to the orchestral parts.” That is a skill that is honed in small- group playing. The Viano Quartet does not have a designated first or second violinist—Zhou and Wang switch from one piece to the next. But even in the traditional arrangement, Zhou said, everyone gets a voice. “You can feel it if someone’s dissatisfied,” he said. Negotiating musicians’ different ideas can be hard, but ideally everyone gets something. And at another summer festival, his group learned a lasting lesson in that approach. “Ultimately the music is the boss,” Zhou said. It was at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Connecticut when Miró Quartet violinist William Fedkenheuer [himself a Steans alum, from the summer of 1999] talked to the young ensemble about leadership. “The dynamics in the group shift with differ- ent parts of the music,” Zhou said. “He told us, ‘Who would you want to deliver the musical message? Who are you looking to for cues?’ ” The answer might be different at any specific moment in a piece, and that perspective “helped us weave the threads together in a way we hadn’t thought of before.” At another festival in Montreal, Zhou remembered, members of the Alban Berg Quartet helped them learn how to comment on one another’s work in a way that was direct but not hurtful. “That’s what summer festivals are for,” he said. Their Ravinia program, in conjunc- tion with guitarist Miloš Karadaglić, explores themes of immigration and identity, with single movements from a guitar quintet by Mario Castelnuovo-Te- desco spaced throughout the program of short works by composers from the Baroque period to the present day. “It’s relevant to all five of us, because we’ve moved around a lot,” Zhou said. Castelnuovo-Tedesco fled Italy in 1939 to escape Mussolini’s regime, and “sto- ries like that can enrich our music-mak- ing,” he said. To the vexed question of how music crosses cultures, Zhou said that approaching with humility is important—“an attitude of ‘what can I learn that’s new that might blow my mind?’ ” The music on the program, he said, focuses on how composers “have gone through something in their life and made discoveries and put different styles together.” Summer festivals may also offer a chance to learn more about the business or logistics of a musical career. “Tate knows that every airline is different on how they handle a cello,” Zhou said, re- ferring to Viano cellist Zawadiuk. “We’ve learned about rental cars, and how to stuff a quartet into one vehicle. When we did our first European tour, there was a lot of dealing with travel, making sure that a train delay here didn’t mess up our concert in the next city.” Looking back over his own career, Hadelich thinks that “the most import- ant choice of all” was moving to the United States in 2004, one year after his Steans summer. “When I came to New York to study, it was in some ways a new beginning for me,” he said. “I was starting over in a new place.” Now that the Viano Quartet mem- bers are in their late 20s, they are in a position to offer some advice to younger players. The foursome has worked at Southern Methodist University for three years doing side-by-sides and coaching sessions. “The day you think you have it all figured out is the day you stop im- proving as an artist,” Zhou said. David Lewellen is a Milwaukee-based journalist who writes regularly for the Chicago Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, and other classical websites. RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 19 SUXIAOYANG