Exhilaration of Notes

Conductor Manfred Honeck walked out onto the stage and announced that earlier in the week he received a text from Helene Grimaud, indicating that she was quite ill. She would not be able to come to Pittsburgh to play the Schumann Concerto in A minor for Piano and Orchestra. He said that she is a fan of the Pittsburgh Symphony and especially asked to extend her best greetings. Imagine, one day before rehearsals, going over the whole list of possible replacements.

Manfred Honeck indicated that Joyce Yang was able to fly in and begin to rehearse. An excellent choice, she offered more than just an admirable performance, it was profoundly brilliant! I was quite impressed at her ability to quickly re-familiarize herself with this quixotic composition. Strictly by memory, she exquisitely and adroitly played the challenging composition along with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and conductor Manfred Honeck. The result was deliciously stunning!

The first movement began with sweeping flow of boldly stated passages with give and take between the soloist and the orchestra. Tumultuous chords interrupted by a brief intermezzo, and the parts played by Yang alone seemed flawless, enough to bring a tingle to the sumptuous exhibition.

As the first movement drew to a close, there was a pause, then suddenly the audience began to applaud. Manfred Honeck turned, and with a quick thumbs-up, smiled, and turned to commence the second movement.

With this new, slower movement I tried to conjure in my imagination a soft parade of notes, marching along a temporal measure of strings, with various sounds appearing and re-appearing in dramatic succession, like an elliptical dance with repetition and harmonic development, a recapitulation to passages heard before, yet savored for one more flavor. The whimsical scherzo fraught with folly gave goose-bumps, and moved quickly into the finale with no pause or trepidation. A tempestuous sound romantically mixed and the familiar ending was the perfect way to conclude a stunning performance. A standing ovation was well deserved.