Making her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony this weekend was conductor Elim Chan, a strong showing that evidenced both her chemistry with the orchestra and individual touch. Opening the program was a 2022 work by Japanese composer Noriko Koide, Swaddling Silk and Gossamer Rain, a piece which Chan previously conducted at the Proms in its UK premiere.
The twelve-minute work was concerned first and foremost with texture, evoking the soundscape of a Japanese garden. The textures seemed to imitate wood and water, with a particularly striking effect suggesting shimmering droplets of rain. Chan deftly guided the orchestra through the subtleties of the score’s inflections in what was largely an essay of reflective stasis.
Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 22 in E flat major brought pianist Jan Lisiecki back to the Heinz Hall stage. The regal sounds of the home key opened, answered by the warmth of the brass and winds. Lisiecki’s entrance on the keyboard sparkled with stylish elegance, though he teased out the work’s dramatic potential, in no way bound by classical restraint. Even more proto-Romantic was the central Andante in the expressive depth of this intimate, soft-spoken dialogue between piano and orchestra.
The finale was one of rhythmic vitality, a buoyant affair with the notes practically bouncing off the keyboard. Still, the pianist’s beauty of tone showed it to be lyrical at its core, save for a fiery cadenza. As an encore, Lisiecki offered a deeply mournful account of Chopin's Prélude in B minor, Op.28. no.6 – also serving as a preview for his upcoming recording on DG that will survey preludes by various composers.
Written during the height of the Second World War, Prokofiev’s watershed, war-torn Fifth Symphony spanned the rest of the program. Leading without a baton, Chan’s pointed conducting communicated with exactitude and clarity, quickly finding her footing with the PSO, and the orchestral detailing was cast in sharp relief. The first movement’s ponderous beginnings rapidly amassed gravitas, drawing out its broad-shouldered contours and clangorous orchestration, not the least in the crashing coda.
Given at a breakneck tempo, the Scherzo was colored by a flippant clarinet solo and piquant splashes from the piano. A martial snare further made for a riveting listen. The Adagio was a much-needed lyrical paragraph amidst the tumult – but no less tragic – before the foot-tapping kineticism of the finale. Relentless repetitions, razor-sharp lines and a deep sense of drama capped off Chan’s memorable debut.
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