Return of the prodigy pianist: Yang fulfills her promise

01.28.08
Joyce Yang
Contra Costa Times

Pianist Joyce Yang, who made her first California Symphony appearance as a 13-year-old child prodigy nearly a decade ago, made a thrilling return to the orchestra Sunday afternoon at the Lesher Center for the Arts.

Joining music director Barry Jekowsky and the orchestra in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Yang demonstrated just how far she's progressed in the intervening years.

What a phenomenal artist she's become. Now 21, the Korean-American pianist, still a student at the Juilliard School, seems poised for a major career. That isn't always the outcome with prodigies, of course, but Yang has moved beyond youthful promise to a startling blend of technical assurance and interpretive flair.

Sunday's concert, which repeats tonight, also included music by Beethoven, Kodaly and Leroy Anderson. But Yang's performance in Rachmaninoff's beloved concerto was the afternoon's decided high point.

Excess is always the pitfall in this most popular of the composer's works, and Yang avoids it with intelligence and restraint. Her playing in the first movement was flawless, relaxed and natural, with crystal-clear technique and great sensitivity to the poetry of the score. The finale was mercurial, playful, with the famous melody sounding grand and Yang's dexterity providing all the dazzle one could hope for.

Best of all was the central slow movement, which Yang performed as a delicate expression of luxuriant lyricism. Jekowsky and the orchestra gave the soloist lush, beautifully measured support.

Yang also joined the orchestra in a performance of "Forgotten Dreams" by Leroy Anderson, the American composer best known for the song "Sleigh Ride." Jekowsky, who has conducted music by an American on every program in the California Symphony's 21-year history, included this 1954 song in honor of Anderson's centennial. It's a familiar tune, one that has been frequently used in commercials and television; not a massive undertaking like the Rachmaninoff, yet, with Yang as soloist, it sounded no less Romantic, and no less attractive.

The program began with Beethoven's "Leonore" Overture No. 3, given a vigorous, energized performance under Jekowsky's direction. Jekowsky has always elicited fine results with Beethoven's music, and this performance was no exception: The incisive string sound, sharply defined woodwinds, and bright, true brass all made the piece an excellent curtain-raiser.

At the end of the program was Kodaly's Suite from the opera "Hary Janos," conducted in a big, extroverted performance by Jekowsky. Taken from the composer's opera -- which depicts a hero of Hungarian folklore who tells tall tales of many exploits, including an encounter with Napoleon's army -- this is colorful, rhythmically exciting music, and the orchestra played it with considerable panache. There were fine contributions from each section, including a tender solo from principal violist Marcel Gemperli in the third movement "Song." There was also impressive work by Jay Stebley on the cimbalom, the Hungarian dulcimer essential to this music.

It was a very full program, with a bonus -- as an encore, Jekowsky returned to Anderson with a delightfully suave performance of the composer's "Serenata."