In a special one-night-only performance, pianist Lang Lang returned to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under the baton of music director Manfred Honeck. The program selected was not one for subtlety, but amply entertained the midweek audience. It was heartening to see Heinz Hall so filled, speaking to the draw of booking a big-name soloist.
Opening the evening was the overture to Verdi’s opera La forza del destino. Brash brass blasts began, leading to material brooding and passionate with no shortage of operatic drama. I found the PSO a bit too percussive here, purveying jagged textures rather than a more rounded, lyrical tone, though a charming clarinet solo was a standout.
A suite from Grieg’s incidental music to Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt followed. The composer himself produced two suites culled from the complete score. Honeck offered an alternative in choosing six selections, presented in a thoughtful reordering beginning with Ingrid’s Lament. Urgent material gave way to somber strings, contrasted by the lilting of Anitra’s Dance, decorated with orchestral tinsel. The Death of Åse was deeply felt, while the familiar flute of Morning Mood was gracefully articulated and ornamented. Arabian Dance captivated in its colorful orchestration, perhaps only outdone by the impish delights of In the Hall of the Mountain King.
The rarity of the evening came in the Spring Festival Overture by Huanzhi Li – certainly a topical choice the evening before the vernal equinox. Dating from the mid-1950s, Li’s work celebrates the Lunar New Year, and was originally envisioned as part of a much larger work involving dance. Just five minutes in duration, the overture was rousing and festive, if not particularly inspired melodically. Pentatonic material gave the Western symphony orchestra an Asian inflection. A solo passage for oboe served as a lyrical moment in this otherwise rather heavy-handed affair.
All this was mere preamble for the main event, namely Lang Lang serving as protagonist in Grieg’s evergreen Piano Concerto in A minor. Rumbling timpani instigated the thundering descent on the piano in this most dramatic of openings. Mellifluous winds answered, as did a long-bowed melody in the strings. A scherzando section came off a bit rushed, with the pianist not entirely in sync with the orchestra. Lang’s glittering technique was on full display in the first movement’s extensive cadenza, and the weight of the double octaves and dense chords was nearly visceral.
The Grieg concerto is not a work that does much in the way of challenging this pianist’s reputation as a showman, yet there were ample opportunities for sensitivity in the central Adagio. The introductory passage for strings amounted to the most beautiful playing of the evening, and the piano responded with a delicate cantilena that blossomed to sweeping flourishes. The finale was stylishly marked by driving, sharply accented dance rhythms, and the coda in the major made for a joyous destination.
A rapturous ovation brought Lang back for an encore, during which Honeck sat on the podium as if in deference to the pianist. Debussy’s Clair de lune was a lovely choice, luminous and expressive.
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