[Originally published in the Toronto Star]
Toronto Symphony Orchestra, with pianists Emanuel Ax, and Jan Lisiecki. At Roy Thomson Hall, Wednesday, Feb. 11
If art is the decoration of space, then music is the decoration of time. And in mid-February, time can seem as bland as the three-month-old piles of brown-coloured snow at the corner of the driveway, which makes a concert at this time of year particularly decorative.
As part of the RBC Piano Extravaganza, the evening spectacle paired Emanuel Ax with Calgary wunderkind, Jan Lisiecki, who was given the keys to a brand new New York Steinway, unveiled Wednesday night for the programme featuring Mozart, Saint-Saëns and Kevin Lau.
The highlight was the opening double piano Concerto No. 10 from 1779, the last Mozart ever wrote for multiple soloists. The piece offers two approaches to consider: the pianists can seek to become a homogenous whole (especially in the Allegro), or to differentiate from each other. Ax and Lisiecki chose the former, and presented a uniform sound that was whole-hearted and celebratory. Judging by the giddy grin across Lisiecki’s face, it was as gratifying to play as it was to listen to.
But just as our seats began to warm, an intermission was called, prompting patrons to plant themselves in the lobby with drinks and chitchat. They seemed reluctant to return to hear RBC Affiliate Composer, Kevin Lau’s Foothills of Heaven make itself known to the world.
Performed well (especially by house pianist Patricia Krueger), Lau’s musical wonder unfolded with imaginative skill but struggled to coalesce. Its many musical influences, each worn on the sleeve, were too brief to fully clothe its lofty premise of transcendence. The 18-minute swab eventually advanced into a filmic Disney-style sweep that set itself against a smattering of percussion and brass stabs. One wondered if it would have benefited from a longer length and a multi-movement form.
Closing the show was Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals”, which included verses written by Second City’s Connor Thompson. TSO Music Director, Peter Oundjian was well suited to the role of narrator, and did justice to each of the animals on display in Saint-Saëns’ aural zoo.
In the end, despite some miss-steps, last night’s spectacle as curated by piano superstar, Emanuel Ax was well worth it, if not just to get out of the house and remind ourselves that the elusive vernal equinox is just around the corner.
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