Piano Concertos with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra
Piano Concertos with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Symphony Space, New York, NY December 1, 2009The young presenting organization, New York Concert Artists and Associates (est. 2008), continued its work in an ambitious evening that included the Brahms Piano Trio in C Major, Op. 87, Mozart’s Piano Concerto in B-flat Major, K. 595, and Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto.
The Brahms Trio, though a seeming anomaly in a program billed as Piano Concertos, held its own quite well, almost outweighing the concerti in range and texture. Pianist Yoojin Oh joined forces with Olivier Fluchaire, violin, and Peter Sanders, cello, in a performance of exceptional blending and dovetailing. Well polished (except for one or two rough moments, such as the second movement double-stops), the interpretation was striking for its unity and will undoubtedly gain more breathing room with further performing. The trio section of the Scherzo was a high point, finding the three musicians at their most impassioned.
In the Mozart Concerto, the excellent soloist was Jihye Synn, a DMA candidate at Rutgers (with degrees also from the Manhattan School of Music). Her playing was characterized by clear, fluid runs, and carefully shaped melodies. She collaborated well with the conductor, David Leibowitz, maintaining intense focus despite some patchy playing in the strings. Occasionally she seemed to shrink excessively from the crests and forte moments, but her delicacy was admirable. Her embellishment of the second movement lines helped sustain them without being obtrusive, and the final Allegro saw an extemporized (or unintended?) addition to Mozart’s own cadenza.
Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto, with Gyehwa Kim as the accomplished soloist, concluded the program. Ms. Kim is a commendable pianist with credentials to support that fact, including degrees from Peabody and the University of Montreal (DMA), and, as one might expect, she showed a good technique, memory, and general grasp; for unknown reasons, however, there seemed not to be quite the meeting of minds that there needs to be in such a substantial and magnificent work. Soloist and orchestra interacted almost incidentally at times, with some glibness and scrambles ensuing.
All in all, though, one has to doff one’s hat to such a program, outside the bailiwick of the more prominent halls.
