176 keys unlock rare music for two pianos, masterfully assayed by Ólafsson and Wang
On paper, the lineup for pianists Víkingur Ólafsson and Yuja Wang’s duo recital on Friday at Symphony Hall in Boston didn’t make much sense. John Cage and Conlon Nancarrow, for instance, don’t normally share billing with Sergei Rachmaninoff, and for good reason.
Yet, in practice, the duo’s Celebrity Series appearance proved the old adage that opposites can and do attract. In fact, the night was almost as striking for its surprising reveals—like the unexpected tie-ins between Cage’s balmy, rocking Experiences No. 1 and the undulating accompanimental riff that opens Franz Schubert’s Fantasie in F minor—as for the general excellence of its performances.
To be sure, Ólafsson and Wang are two of the day’s most dynamic keyboardists. Together on this night the pair largely drew out each other’s strengths, mixing virtuosic brawn with poetic insights.
This meant, for instance, that the recital at times unfolded as a fascinating study of obsession. There was the recurring little theme that dots Schubert’s Fantasie, like an idea or premonition one can’t shake, as well as the relentless iterations of the Dies irae chant that crop up across Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances.
Just as invigorating were the pertinacious rhythmic transformations of the opening lick from John Adams’s Hallelujah Junction. As it happens, both Ólafsson and Wang have been the beneficiaries of recent piano concertos from the Worcester native and, on Friday, their familiarity with his idiom told. Theirs was a reading of this 1998 charmer that bristled with exuberance but didn’t stint on grit: the pealing ecstasy of the first movement’s opening pages eventually ceded way to a denouement of crunching, ferocious violence.
But it was also closely attuned to Junction’s big expressive contrasts, as the pair’s dreamy account of the slow, central section attested. Meanwhile, the finale built to a feverish, Buster Keaton-esque zenith, with a rollicking climax that was so stylish one could have been excused for singing along with it.
Schubert’s ruminative Fantasie, on the other hand, offered a very different perspective. Completed just eight months before the composer’s early death at 31, this is music that weaves its way through the shadows, sometimes lyrically, sometimes explosively. Friday’s rendition was absorbingly inward, Ólafsson and Wang illuminating the score’s periodically thick textures with bracing color and care.
At the same time, the duo navigated the music’s tempestuous dialogues with vigor and charged every one of the Fantasie’s several luftpausen with electricity. Even more striking was the shapeliness with which the pair imbued their interpretation: this ensured that its meandering, rhapsodic structure sounded, if not predictable, then thoroughly organic and unified.
Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, heard in the composer’s arrangement, was, likewise, thematically tight—though also somewhat frantic, with the finale driven a touch maniacally. In the central waltz the early dissonances rang eerily and the larger section was shaped with intense beauty. Most striking was the opening Non allegro, whose taut, slashing rhythms and enchantingly flexible second subject provided the evening a terrific play of focused chiaroscuro.
Stirring though these big numbers were, the night’s smaller fare ended up truly filling out the program. Arvo Pärt’s Hymn to a Great City formed both a clever bridge from Adams to Rachmaninoff and, with its pure, hypnotic refrains, provided something of a welcome palate-cleanser.
Thomas Adès’ adaptation of Nanacarrow’s Studies for Player Piano No. 6 led into Hallelujah Junction with tipsy insouciance. Yet its frenetic scales and unyielding rhythmic patterns shared more than a little in common with the latter.
So did Cage’s opus with the Schubert, as well as—even more amazingly—music by Luciano Berio. Granted, that one shouldn’t come as a surprise: in the early ‘90s, the Italian maverick completed an unfinished Schubert symphony he titled Rendering. Even so, the fragile beauty of Berio’s Wasserklavier made for an alluring lead-in to the Fantasie.
Several tens of thousands of notes later, the duo revealed a notable enthusiasm for encores. There were four of them, which, to judge from the steady exodus of audience members during the last pair, was perhaps too much of a good thing.
Nevertheless, Ólafsson and Wang’s traversal of Schubert’s “Marche militaire,” a pair of Brahms’ Op. 39 Waltzes (Nos. 2 & 3), plus his Hungarian Dance No. 1 and Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance Op. 72, no. 2 suggested that, if they want it, this invigorating partnership has a sequel waiting for it in the wings.
Víkingur Ólafsson and Yuja Wang repeat the program February 26 at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and March 2 at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.
