Pianist Joyce Yang @ Cliburn Concerts

Logo art and photo courtesy of Cliburn Foundation

—Wayne Lee Gay

It's purely coincidental, but this year’s September concert calendar in the North Texas region has had a definite Russian accent. An all-Russian concert opened the Dallas Symphony's classical subscription series, just one week after Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony had formed the second half of the Fort Worth Symphony's season opener. 

Then, last Thursday, the Cliburn Foundation's 2024-25 concert season opened with another all-Russian piano repertoire, performed by Korean-born 2005 Cliburn silver medalist Joyce Yang. All of which underlines the historical fact that, in spite of a perpetual and ongoing succession of oppressive regimes, Russia has given the world a magnificent body of great music.

Meanwhile, besides providing a showcase of pianist Yang's powerful musicianship and warmly charismatic stage presence, Thursday night's event at Fort Worth's Kimbell Museum introduced a new sort of recital format: less repertoire than the standard program, compactly packaged without intermission. In a brief onstage pre-concert comment, Cliburn Foundation CEO Jacques Marquis announced that the intermission-less format is now standard for Cliburn concert events.

For her part, pianist Yang applied a powerful combination of muscular technique along with the ability to communicate a deep insight into the music, opening with six of the twelve movements from Tchaikovsky's The Seasons. Russia's seasons evidently are a bit different from those of Texas: for instance, Tchaikovsky's "January" suggests fireside coziness, while "February" is a bracing sleigh ride. Yang enlivens all with an assertive control of melody and, equally important, a convincing command of the shifting moods from one temperature level to the next. Though Tchaikovsky's pleasantly lively "August" is a far cry from the dreadful heat we experience in these parts, Yang made it possible for us to believe that a pleasant August might be possible somewhere. 

For this listener, the high point of Yang's performance arrived with a set of three Preludes of Rachmaninoff. She offered a verbal explanation of the psychology of each, then brought her comments to life in a molto rubato rendition of the Prelude in B minor. The rippling figurations of the G-sharp minor Prelude were somehow sparkling and solid at the same time, while the lyrical D major Prelude emerged as a gently seductive song, rising to waves of passion.

Yang brought an aggressive resonance to the opening phrase of her final work, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, and carried through unfailingly to the roaring cathedral chimes of the final episode. Pictures is a unique and much-beloved work, and Yang gave a performance that was unfailingly riveting and, in the end, thrilling. However, one can't help observing that the piece has been performed many, many times in these parts. The Russian piano repertoire is rich with monumental solo piano works beyond Pictures. The recital was a missed opportunity to present any of a number of major works that we haven't heard a dozen times already in Fort Worth.

WHEN: Thursday, September 19, 2024 (one performance only)
WHERE: Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth
WEB: cliburn.org/concerts [Please note: the Cliburn concerts for 2024-2025 are split between two venues, the Kimbell Museum’s Renzo Piano Pavilion and Tim Love’s Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall in the Fort Worth Stockyards.]