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SYMPHONY REVIW
January 7, 2006
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By Alexander Kahn
During a recording session of Mozart's C Major Piano Concerto, so the story goes, the young pianist Daniel Barenboim was troubled by the frequent stares he received from conductor Otto Klemperer. When Barenboim asked if there was anything the matter, Klemperer retorted, “I want to make sure you are not conducting behind my back.” At Saturday night's San Francisco Symphony concert, conductor Mark Wigglesworth might have had similar words for pianist Lang Lang, who was in constant communication with the orchestra through gestures and glances, and who generally stole the show.
That Lang Lang's performance was the highlight of the evening was the result of a number of factors. First of all, it was clear that many, if not most, of the audience had come mainly to see him, giving him a rousing standing ovation after his performance of Beethoven's First Piano Concerto and mobbing him in the atrium after the concert as he signed CDs. Secondly, the Beethoven stood out as a result of programming. The concert opened with the American premiere of The Flight of Icarus by John Pickard, a British composer not well-known in America, and ended with Haydn's Symphony No. 99 in E-Flat Major. While both pieces were well played by the orchestra, they seemed inappropriate and insufficient bookends to the Beethoven.
Lang's performance was delicate and subtle, characterized throughout by a soft touch and subdued dynamics. His interpretation emphasized, above all, that the Beethoven of 1795, when the concerto was written, was a much milder creature than the Beethoven of the "Eroica" Symphony or the "Emperor" Concerto. Unfortunately, problems in the orchestra often distracted from Lang's playing. During the first movement the piano was occasionally overpowered as the orchestra failed to match Lang's delicacy. This disparity was further marred by disagreements between piano and orchestra about tempi, with a fair amount of rushing by the orchestra. The second movement — played at a languorous and serene pace — was damaged by intonation problems in the clarinets, who played with a thin tone throughout the movement. Only the spritely third movement came off relatively without a hitch. As an encore, Lang played Liszt's transcription of Schumann's Widmung, the first song from Myrthen, Op.25. Like many Liszt transcriptions, this one was filled with bravura figuration but Lang never let the fireworks overwhelm the musical line.
Though the orchestra fell short during the Beethoven, they played to their full potential in both the Pickard and the Haydn. Pickard's work is characterized by masterful orchestration, constantly grouping instruments in novel and engaging ways. Pickard's scoring is both dense and deft, using many instruments simultaneously but never becoming muddy. The orchestra's virtuosity shone through, especially in the brass section, during the many passages for brass chorale and the solos for tuba and trumpet. In Haydn's Symphony No. 99 (1793) the orchestra played with a wonderful sense of phrase, color, and shape, encouraged by Wiggleswoth's expressive conducing. The trio section of the third movement was particularly noteworthy, with a tasteful sense of rubato and engaging solos by the principal flute and bassoon.
(Alexander Kahn is a Ph.D. candidate in music history and literature at UC Berkeley, where his research is focused on the Hollywood émigrés. He is also the assistant conductor of the Oakland Civic and the UC Berkeley Symphony orchestras.)
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Lang Lang
Mark Wigglesworth
