Quick Review
Yuja Wang, the 22-year-old impresaria pianist, played the world premier of Jennifer Higdon’s Piano Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center last night. It was the second of three compositions, with Rimsky-Korsakov's suite from "The Snow Maiden" and Tchaikovsky's "Winter Daydreams" rounding out the evening.
Before the performance of Higdon's piece, because it is rare that orchestras “get to touch a living, breathing composer,” guest conductor Andrew Litton brought Ms. Higdon to the stage and asked a few questions. He said technology allowed him to ask how many notes were in the piano part of the concerto. 19,861.
I love the piano, and I was hoping for a delight. Honestly, as fun as it was to watch Ms. Wang’s hands dance over the keyboard, and she hit all of those notes, it did not thrill me. A technical marvel at that many notes in 30 minutes, I felt that Ms. Wang’s hands were performing in a new version of the “Dancing Shoes”—she just could not stop. As well, in the 27th row, it was difficult to hear the piano during sections when the orchestra was in full swing.
This was the first composition for the piano that Ms. Higdon composed, and it may have just gotten away from her.
Washington Post reviewer Anne Midgette this morning has a great paragraph about this in an otherwise positive review:
“If it had a flaw, it was that it was so constant it almost paled through a kind of sameness: Clusters of rapid notes yielded again and again to rapid sliding glissandos, light-fingered and evanescent, like the cluster of ripples that changing breezes send across the surface of reflecting water.”
Composer and performers alike received a standing ovation, but I admit that I do not put much stock in those—they seem to come every night.
One more show if you want to hear it. Today 1:30p.m. Given that the seats were not full last night there might be tickets left.
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