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concert
“Salonen & Wang x 2“
Sweden’s Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen
Soloist: Yuja Wang, piano
Stage: Berwaldhallen, Stockholm
With Yuja Wang on the piano stool and Esa-Pekka Salonen on the desk, there is double star splendor in the Berwaldhallen. Plus it’s twice as full despite a not entirely deserted program that’s about to go on tour. This season’s Salon as Artist in Residence was truly a stroke of luck and Finland’s cause is ours here, so to speak. Incidentally, Sibelius’ seventh symphony was premiered in Stockholm in 1924, then under the name “Fantasia sinfonica”.
With her about The work broke with the usual symphony form for 20 minutes at a time. From the opening adagio to the final affettuoso there is actually a single long line or a single breath. Especially since the radio symphonies under Salonen’s direction created an organic flow with particularly fine woodwinds and whistling strings like wind machines.
No wonder that timbre thinking aroused admiration among fans of spectral music much later in Paris in the 1980s.
The first piano concerto by the heir Einojuhani Rautavaara from 1969 is also courageous. At this point, the Finnish composer had abandoned the twelve-tone technique in favor of neo-Romanticism with an emphasis on innovative thinking. Featuring finlir and cluster chords for the entire forearm, Rautavaara’s bold work is perfectly suited to Yuja Wang’s technique and temperament. The Chinese pianist is still a shining phenomenon – athletic and at the same time sensitive in his playing.
Rautavaara (1928-2016). also the connection between Sibelius (who supported him) and Salonen (who was his student). This also resulted in an elegantly composed program that, after the interval, shifted the focus from Finnish to French, again with Wang as a brilliant soloist in Ravel’s Left Hand Piano Concerto. It was written for Paul Wittgenstein, who lost an arm in the First World War, and therefore feels incredibly timely. On Thursday evening, Wang offered a generous array of encores, including Finnish finds and a powerful arrangement of Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet.
Debussy’s final “La mer” seemed almost superfluous, but the impressionistic dialogue between the wind and the harp-sparkling sea also suited Sibelius well.
Read more music reviews and other writing by Johanna Paulsson.
