Within the classical music enterprise, pianist Yuya Wang is without doubt one of the few protected bets. Her flamboyant sound, fiery approach and sharp musicianship, served up with unflappable appeal and gliding vogue, a dependable trigger is shifting on the field workplace.
Wang’s former trainer Gary Grafman as soon as described her as “Unsustainable of all.” So it was fascinating to see this star present an inexperienced and even awkward facet on the David Geffen Corridor. Three Chamber Concertos of the 20th Century each soloist and conductor.
The consequence was a high-strung act that featured noticeable swings in Stravinsky’s Thorn Concerto for piano and wind devices and Caprio’s eccentric piano for piano. The 75-minute live performance led to a stunning rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody within the Unique Jazz Band Orchestration by Ferde Grof. On the finale, the triumphant chord, the viewers erupted in what might have been a profit, combined with reduction on the profitable completion of a harmful stunt. Most significantly, the night felt like an thrilling and dangerous experiment at an establishment that has in any other case steered a conservative line by this interregnum and not using a music director.
It isn’t unusual for pianists to guide from the piano bench in works of the classical interval. However Wang’s chosen materials was laced with rhythmic complexity and the sorts of counterintuitive instrument pairings that require particular consideration to stability. Stravinsky’s Neo-Baroque Concerto is a counterpoint train for particular person wind and brass gamers who should deliver the identical indifferent precision and crispness to their traces because the pianist. Apparently, their coordination was tightest when Wang’s palms had been busy along with his half. Her indicators as a pacesetter weren’t practically as assured – the palms somewhat too imprecise, the nods too emphatic. Quite a lot of entrances rushed into place.
Janacek’s Capriccio is a wierd hybrid of lyricism and grotesque shocks of shade. Composed by a Czech musician who misplaced using his proper hand within the First World Conflict, it’s one in every of a number of astonishingly efficient works written round this time for pianists with battlefield accidents. For a hard-working performer like Wang, this leaves the fitting hand free to tackle the work of bouncing the trumpets, trombone, tuba and flute into an array of precariously delicate partnerships. The combo of vulnerability and boldness got here out in full power on this efficiency, which featured some sonic fluttering but in addition expressive moments the place Wang’s milky legato matched the cautious, even tender enjoying of the decrease brass.
That Gershwin got here out and not using a hanger isn’t a surprise: the Philharmonic has this piece in its bones. Affiliate principal clarinetist, Ben Adler, led the opening squeal with pleasant swagger, setting the tone for a high-spirited novel that introduced smiles to the faces of many on stage. As anticipated, Wang delivered his virtuosic passages with Lisztian thunder, but in addition added little private touches to sure traces and elaborations that appeared utterly spontaneous.
It’s this spirit – to attempt one thing contemporary, in an establishment based on excellence – that made not solely the “rhapsody” however the entire live performance so invigorating.
The New York Philharmonic
This program is repeated on Saturdays at David Geffen Corridor, Manhattan; nyphil.org.
