Review: Totentanz gets spine-tingling treatment from Joyce Yang and the Oregon Symphony

Joyce Yang with Asher Fisch and the Oregon Symphony - Photo from OSO Facebook page

It’s that spooky time of the year – with Halloween coming up in a few days – so the programming of Liszt’s “Totentanz” (Dance of the Dead) for the Oregon Symphony concert (October 26) was a perfect fit, and wow, pianist Joyce Yang delivered a bone-rattling, chilling, and thrilling performance. Her prowess on the keyboard lit up everyone in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in a program that included the Wagner’s Overture to “Der fliegende Holländer” (The Flying Dutchman) and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”) with guest conductor Asher Fisch. Both Yang and Fisch made their debuts with the orchestra in this concert.

Ever since she won the silver medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2005, Yang has been busy with an international career. Accolades for Yang have continued to roll, including an Avery Fisher Career Grant 2010 and a Grammy nomination in 2018 for her recording with violinist Augustin Hadelich.

Offering six variations on the Dies Irae theme from the Latin Requiem Mass, Liszt’s “Totentanz” opened with a bombastic statement from low brass before being forcefully taken over by Yang. Playing with fierce intensity and impeccable technique, she captivated listeners with over-the-top virtuosity in each variation. Some of the variations created images of skeletons rattling about. Other variations were more lush and Romantic, and one of them conjured a style similar to Bach’s but on drugs. In every variation, Yang shaped compelling storylines that gripped the entire hall, and took listeners on a memorable journey. I mention that because most concertgoers, I think, are familiar with Rachmaninov’s “Variations on a Theme by Paganini,” but most didn’t know all of the variations in the “Totentanz.”

Gershwin’s “The Man I Love” in an arrangement by Earl Wild. It was smothered in lush ornateness but still relaxing to the ears, providing a wonderful contrast to the spine-tingling Liszt number.

Asher Fisch is well-known for his Wagner interpretations. I’ve heard him conduct Seattle Opera performances and have been impressed. So his directing of Overture to “Der fliegende Holländer” went very well. The tempos were well chosen and all of the themes came through clearly, and it was especially impressive when the violins executed a blitzing, ascending passage with a unified sound near the end of the piece.

But Fisch’s conducting of Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony was mystifyingly vague at times. Eschewing a score, Fisch got things off to a good start, but he often slipped into poetic gestures that were not particularly on the beat – as if he were trying to paint a canvas of color. Often, he didn’t help the musicians with cues and a clear beat, and he used some very wild gestures when the music became fast and furious.

It was a good thing that the orchestra knows the Dvořák so well. They plowed ahead and delivered the goods, but some entrances were a bit tentative and just not as crisp as they could have been. Also in the fourth movement, there was a big squeak in the woodwinds – which was very, very unusual – and I wonder if it was caused by some nervousness. I can’t even remember when I had heard that before at an Oregon Symphony concert.

Still, there were highlights, which included the lovely sound of Principal Flutist Alicia DiDonato Paulsen and the poignant English Horn playing of Jason Sudduth. At the end of the second movement, the brief brass chorale glowed before the passage was finished off by the bass violins. Sensitive playing by timpanist Ian Kerr added terrifically to music-making. The audience loved the performance and responded with robust applause and cheers, but I think that they might have heard a much better performance if Fisch had not conducted from memory.