The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has featured several up-and-coming classical stars this season — including violinist Ray Chen and pianist Benjamin Grosvenor — but none have performed with the level of technical polish and sophistication of phrasing as pianist Jan Lisiecki.
Mr. Lisiecki, 23, made his PSO debut Friday in Heinz Hall with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, the third installment of a spring cycle of all five Beethoven concerti. Guest conductor Bernard Labadie made his conducting debut as well, bookending the concerto with music by two of Beethoven’s contemporaries: Haydn (whom you might have heard of) and Henri-Joseph Rigel (whom you probably haven’t).
Orchestra and soloist alike were stunning in the concerto, the former displaying a sunny, light-hearted grace, and the latter exhibiting a Mozartian sense of playfulness and delicacy. Mr. Lisiecki maintained a seamless rapport with the PSO, tapering his phrases delicately as the winds would take over or picking up a melody from the horns and maintaining the character of the line flawlessly. The clarity of his voicing in the Largo second movement was rapturous, and the quirks and subtleties of the final movement made for a joyous noise indeed.
This wasn’t a noteworthy performance on account of the pianist’s age. To be clear, this was an incredible performance. Full stop.
The remainder of the program was strong, although it didn’t match the Beethoven concerto. The PSO delivered a clean interpretation of Haydn’s Symphony No. 98 in B-flat major (one of the composer’s London works), but it lacked verve compared to what it followed.
Rigel’s Symphony No. 4 in C minor felt merely perfunctory,although the reduced orchestration (strings, pairs of oboes and horns and bassoon) made for a lovely, transparent timbre. Mr. Labadie could have explored the softer dynamics to greater effect. The Rigel seemed an odd choice for the program, with little to recommend it besides the contrast of being in a minor key -— a rarity in the late 18th century — and the fact that it was composed around the same period as the rest of the program.
Mr. Labadie, world-renowned as a conductor of baroque and classical music, led the concert seated at a piano bench, as he has throughout his recovery from a bout with lymphoma in 2014.
This concert repeats Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets: $20-$99; pittsburghsymphony.org.
Jeremy Reynolds: jreynolds@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1634; twitter: @Reynolds_PG. Mr. Reynolds' work at the Post-Gazette is supported in part by a grant from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Getty Foundation and the Rubin Institute.
First Published: April 7, 2018, 4:00 a.m.
