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Renowned for his technically flawless and emotionally compelling interpretations of just about every piece in the violin repertoire, Augustin Hadelich’s performances are epitomized by an unmatched sense of ease and control.

As the Artist in Residence with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the 2025-2026 season, Hadelich performed in Symphony Hall with the BSO from Oct. 16 to 18, before playing a recital with piano accompaniment on Oct. 19. The centerpiece of his performances with the BSO was a commanding interpretation of one of the great contemporary works for violin: the 1993 Violin Concerto by John C. Adams ’69, originally commissioned for two orchestras and the New York City Ballet.

The first movement, described by Adams as having a “free, fantastical, ‘endless melody,’” opened with a fluid, undulating violin melody backed by cyclical, steadily ascending lines in the wind and string sections. From the outset, Hadelich’s characteristic crystal clear, transparent tone and impeccable bow control accentuated the movement’s long, spinning phrases — a defining feature of the concerto. He navigated the piece’s juxtaposition between dissonant harmony and natural, idiomatic melodic shapes with poise and ease. This sense of effortlessness is particularly evident in his ability to draw a singing tone from the E-string in upper positions — a technical challenge familiar to all violinists.

In the second movement, Hadelich continued to exhibit masterful restraint and control over his tone and phrasing. Taking the form of a chaconne, the movement seamlessly shifted between modalities while the violin floated over a steady, textural orchestral backing.

The conclusion of the piece is markedly frenetic in composition. A pervasive sense of bubbling chaos is particularly evident during an orchestral tutti section where rippling semiquaver string passages were complemented by thundering percussion hits. However, even among this pandemonium, Hadelich retained clarity and focus, his sound cutting through the cacophonous orchestral backing.

His performance was met with a rapturous standing ovation, prompting Hadelich to deliver a performance of his signature encore — his own arrangement of Carlos Gardel’s “Por Una Cabeza” for solo violin. Carefully navigating the polyphonic challenges of the piece, Hadelich’s clear delineation of the melody and accompaniment line — often played simultaneously — even amid continual double and triple stops was particularly impressive.

Following a brief intermission, the BSO returned with a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 — a piece that was received in a famously hostile manner following its first performance in Boston in 1892. However, over 130 years later, the symphony is universally adored by musicians and the public alike, praised for its profound emotional depth and masterful melodic writing.

The hushed opening of the first movement introduced a recurring “fate” motif while backed by the warm, rich sound of the BSO’s lower strings and woodwinds. This ominous introduction was one of the highlights of the symphony, highlighting a remarkable homogeneity in phrasing and tone across the strings. The cello section was particularly impressive, boasting a lush and resonant ensemble sound.

The second movement, which begins with the symphony’s defining feature of an exquisitely beautiful solo for French horn, was performed with ease and poise to immediately establish an introspective, contemplative mood. The solo was followed by a spine-tingling entry by the first-violin section, with the subsequent interplay between the strings and winds evoking a sense of both longing and solace — sometimes even simultaneously.

The triumphant ending to the symphony truly unleashed the orchestra’s brass section. Exploding into a powerful and majestic march, the movement was characterized by majestic brass melodies punctuated by cascading scales in the strings and booming timpani rolls. Despite the strength of the brass section, it was the final movement that exposed some of the weaker sections in the orchestra, namely the violas, who lacked the vigour of the cellos and violins. Additionally, the overall balance of the first and second violin sections was slightly top-heavy, with the back desks being visibly and audibly less prominent than the front desks.

Perhaps the most polarizing aspect of the performance was the conducting of Andris Nelsons. Throughout the symphony, his conducting was characterised by large, dramatic gestures, often forgoing time-keeping duties in favour of sweeping expressivity. On one hand, his conducting felt like a responsive interaction with the orchestra, fostering a mutual sense of connection with not only the musicians, but also the audience at large. But while his conducting style was fluid with dynamic phrasing, it occasionally came at the expense of rhythmic precision.

Nevertheless, this performance was a worthy tribute to the contrasting, yet equally expressive qualities of Romantic and contemporary classical music. In particular, this concert invited an appreciation of the evolution of harmonic and rhythmic language across these eras through the lens of Adams’ Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. Hadelich’s virtuosic and deeply expressive playing was undoubtedly the highlight of the performance, a reminder of how fortunate audiences were to witness one of the finest violinists of our generation.