CONCERT REVIEW: Reading Symphony, Constantine make beautiful music together

10.08.07
Yuja Wang
Reading Eagle

By Susan L. Peña

Reading Eagle Correspondent

The orchestra's new music director makes his debut Saturday night in a concert of works by beloved Russian composers Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.

Reading, PA -  Conductor Andrew Constantine made his debut as the Reading Symphony Orchestra's new music director in a concert featuring works by two of the most beloved Russian composers: Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.

The first subscription concert of the season, held Saturday night in the Sovereign Performing Arts Center, featured the formidable young Chinese pianist Yuja Wang playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23, in a reading that made the old war horse seem newly composed.

The rest of the program was devoted to Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27, revealing the RSO in top form, with Constantine drawing from it a precise, wonderfully balanced, deeply expressive performance.

From the full-bodied opening of the Concerto to its bighearted conclusion, Wang proved why she has become such a talked-about artist. Her perfect technique and big, warm sound are only the beginning.

She played with soul and a sweet seductiveness in the lyrical sections, displaying a complete understanding of the Romantic sensibility; then she would spring into tigerish attacks that knocked the audience back in their seats. She approached the work with a sense of discovery, giving it an improvisatory feel, and she rode the fast sections like a racehorse.

Amidst all the bravura, there were moments of breathtaking quiet, like the beginning of the second movement with its flute solo, beautifully played by principal Mary Berk, over tiny pizzicato strings unfolding like a flower into a gentle dialogue between piano and woodwinds, and a fine cello solo by principal Douglas McNames.

Such attention to detail, and the musicians' response to Constantine's faultless direction, made this a thoroughly captivating performance.

The Rachmaninoff symphony, with its Wagnerian chromatic tension and melancholy mood, seemed to erupt from underground, as the basses opened with a rich, rumbling tone.

There was beautiful playing throughout the tormented first movement, the galloping "Dies irae" theme of the second movement, the well-known Adagio (featuring a gorgeous clarinet solo by principal Janine Thomas), and the sparkling finale.

Constantine and the RSO created moments of such stillness that time seemed to stop and no one breathed; then he would unleash a burning energy out of nowhere. It was an incredible performance.

It seems the two will make a fine team.