Hadelich and Weiss chart an American road trip at MIT’s Thomas Tull Concert Hall
The duo performed music ranging from Charles Ives to Carlos Simon as part of the BSO’s “E Pluribus Unum” festival
Ives’s Sonata No. 4, Hartke’s Netsuke, Roumain’s “Filter,” Simon’s Serenade, Adams’s Road Movies, Copland’s “Nocturne,” “Ukulele Serenade,” “Hoe-Down,” Beach’s Romance
Augustin Hadelich, violin and Orion Weiss, piano
Thomas Tull Concert Hall
Feb. 1, 2026
Acclaimed violinist Augustin Hadelich was born in Italy to German parents. He came to the United States two decades ago to study at the Juilliard School and never left. Hadelich’s biography is somewhat of an introduction for the recital he and pianist Orion Weiss brought to MIT’s Thomas Tull Concert Hall on Feb. 1 as part of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s month-long “E Pluribus Unum: From Many, One” festival celebrating the 250th anniversary of American democracy. The program, mirroring the duo’s 2024 Warner Classics Erato album American Road Trip, asked what American music sounds like; predictably and beautifully, the duo found that it sounded like many things simultaneously.
The evening opened with Charles Ives’s Sonata No. 4, subtitled “Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting.” In his writing, Ives includes many contradictions. For example, hymn tunes repeatedly sound fractured and reassembled. Hadelich and Weiss caught these shifting phrases naturally, moving through the sonata’s wild turns without suppressing its deliberate roughness. Listeners familiar with the gospel hymns included in the score could recognize these subtle tunes, and those who did not could still feel a tension between familiarity and novelty.
Following Ives was Aaron Copland’s two miniatures, the Roaring Twenties-flavored “Ukulele Serenade” (1926) and the 1942 “Hoe-Down” from Rodeo, which became the evening’s most instantly crowd-pleasing moments. Dubbed the “Dean of American Composers,” Copland was a city boy imagining the Wild West when he wrote the piece. Hadelich and Weiss played both selections with infectious energy. The “Hoe-Down” in particular burst with joy that left the audience grinning.
The program’s centerpiece, John Adams’s Road Movies, lived up to its title. The three-movement work, “Relaxed Groove,” “Meditative,” and “40% Swing,” is Adams’s most cinematically American composition, creating open highways and a particular restlessness of motion for its own sake. Whatever minimalism underlied his writing hid under sheer momentum. Hadelich and Weiss’s dynamic accents fell precisely where they should, and the piece evoked an “American Dream” that was delivered with full conviction.
On the other hand, Stephen Hartke’s six-movement Netsuke left the audience wondering. The work functions as a sort of Japanese pictures-at-an-exhibition, and several listeners in the hall were visibly consulting the program notes throughout. Hartke’s writing for the duo was brilliant, and Hadelich and Weiss gave it everything they had. However, the piece ran long and achieved its conclusion before its actual ending.
The evening’s most electrifying moment belonged to Daniel Bernard Roumain’s “Filter” for solo violin, a bluesy, rock-inflected homage to Jimi Hendrix. Hadelich brought the full house to its feet with a virtuosic performance that wrung sounds from an acoustic violin that had no business coming from one. The rendition led to a well-earned standing ovation of the evening. After “Filter” was Carlos Simon’s “Serenade,” receiving its world premiere as a BSO commission. Simon is the BSO’s composer-in-residence and an Atlanta native. Although the piece was excellent, it felt mild by comparison to the adventurousness surrounding it. Nevertheless, the programming of this piece supported its merit.
The program closed like it began, going back to the late 19th century. Amy Beach’s Romance served as a kind of exhalation after a long journey. The expanse between Ives’s opening hymns and Beach’s closing tenderness made sense, like a completed road trip. The encore, “Black Gypsy” by Eddie South, was a bright ending from two musicians who clearly love American music.