Yuja Wang and Salonen both Return to SFS

Photograph of Claude Debussy from the studio of Nadar (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Last night pianist Yuja Wang made her annual return visit to the San Francisco Symphony (SFS), performing two piano concertos under the baton of Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen. The intermission was preceded by Maurice Ravel’s 1930 concerto in the key of D major composed to be played by the left hand alone. It was then followed by the Opus 45 (first) piano concerto composed by Einojuhani Rautavaara, which was receiving its first SFS performance. The “bookends” for the program were the three compositions by Claude Debussy collected under the title Images pour orchestre. Two of these, “Gigues” and “Rondes printemps” began the program, which concluded with the three-movement “Ibéria.” Collectively, these served to provide a sort of “European travelogue” making visits to (in order of appearance) England, France, and Spain.

I have been following Wang’s work for pretty much as long as I have been following SFS after my return to the United States from Singapore in 1995. She was a powerhouse when I first encountered her, and she still is. The two concertos she performed last night provided an ample account of her capacity for both intricate fingerwork and intense expressiveness. Her disposition always seems to be cheerful; but, when she sits down on the piano bench, her attention is focused entirely on the music, not only the notes but also what they signify. Her approach to the Rautavaara concerto made it clear that she is always up for exploring new approaches to that expressiveness, while her account of the Ravel brought freshness to a familiar score.

When I studied orchestration in my student days, I cultivated a particular interest in Images. There were so many things to learn from Debussy’s techniques for deploying instrumental resources, and I was struck by his capacity to deploy those techniques to express three different “musical nationalities.” These were composed over a period of roughly four years, beginning with the only multi-movement composition. When they were published as a set, “Ibéria,” with its multiple movements, was the “central” work, preceded by “Gigues” (the British nationality) and followed by “Rondes de printemps” (French, of course).

Last night’s performance did not follow this order. Salonen began the program with “Gigues” and “Rondes de printemps” performed without interruption, saving “Ibéria” for the “grand finale” of the evening. This provided the “framework” for Wang’s performances, which included a Philip Glass encore, [updated 2/14, 5:50 p.m.: the sixth of the twenty Etudes for Piano compositions, this one in the first volume,] following the Rautavaara concerto. (She followed this with a tango, [updated 2/14 5:55 p.m.: the second of the “Danzon” compositions by Arturo Marquez.]) The Debussy selections provided the framework for approaching the evening as a journey with Wang making a thoroughly engaging “guest appearance” along the course of that journey!