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Beethoven, Brahms: Yuja Wang (piano), Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, Edwin Outwater, Center-in-the-Square, Kitchener, Ontario, 17.1.2009. (PPLL)

Beethoven: Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Op.43 (1801)

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C Minor, Op.37 (1800)

Brahms: Serenade No.1 in D Major, Op.11 (1857)

Edwin Outwater - Picture © Terrance McCarthy

Kitchener is a city in the southwestern region of Ontario, neighboring with Waterloo and Cambridge and contributing its population of over 400,000. Hidden in this quiet Canadian town is the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (KWS), comprising musicians from the Canadian Chamber Ensemble. The KWS was founded in 1945 by Dr. Glenn Kruspe, then director of the Philharmonic Choir, and between 1971 and 1993, Armenian–Canadian conductor Raffi Armenian was its Music Director. Mr. Armenian brought the Orchestra through a period of incredible growth and gave it to national profile. Today, the major concert venue of the KWS, the Center in the Square, which houses the Raffi Armenian Theatre, known to be one of Canada’s finest halls, next  to Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall or Vancouver’s Chan Center for the Performing Arts. In order to maintain a musical resource to its community, outreach activities are an integral component of the KWS. The Orchestra faced a financial crisis three years ago, but thanks to a successful campaign “Save our Symphony” in the Fall of 2006, it was able to raise sufficient funds to revitalize the Orchestra. One of its most successful initiatives was to engage the Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (2001-6) Edwin Outwater, as its Music Director in 2007. In 2008–2009, the KWS started its second season with Mr. Outwater, and he has invigorated the Orchestra. Here, we witnessed this legacy in tonight’s ‘fight–against–the–ferocious–cold’ programme featuring two musical titans: Beethoven and Brahms.

Hectic winter weather, with blazing snowfalls, did not keep residents of the Kitchener–Waterloo and Toronto areas off the slippery roads to support of the KWS. The second of three repeating concerts featured Beethoven’s Prometheus Overture, followed by the Piano Concerto No.3 in C Minor. The evening ended with Brahms’s very own worldly inspiration to a sunny paradise, the Serenade No.1 in D, Op.11. The soloist in tonight’s Beethoven Concerto was the young Chinese pianist, Yuja Wang, appearing in her first concerts with the KWS. (For an interview with Ms. Wang, on her journey to stardom, please click on MusicWeb International here.)

More formally known as the Overture to Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus (The Creatures of Prometheus), it was written to open the heroic–allegorical ballet in two acts. The KWS musicians gave the score their full attention, opening with a brief but impressive Adagio that crept intriguingly onto an striking melodic line by principal oboist James Mason. In the live–spirited Allegro, the tempo was a tad sluggish for my taste, but the collective timbre of the strings was lustrous and fully–nourished. The second subject is introduced by the wind instruments, and this moto perpetuo showed an ensemble lacking, at times, the close intimacy one seeks for fine control and coherence in a seasoned orchestra. This need for greater refinement between orchestral members continued throughout this evening. But the firm timpani of Ron Brown added greatly to the drama, and the striking Coda brought the Overture to its dramatic close.

Among the pieces that revealed Beethoven’s belligerent resolve to ‘thrust his hands into the jaws of fate,’ his C Minor Concerto is perhaps the signature piece that demonstrates this character – full of forceful vigor and intense creative fervor, typical of Beethoven’s middle period. Our soloist tonight, Yuga Wang, programmed this piece for the first time in her career. Our Chinese pianist performed this difficult and beautiful concerto with a calm and focused objectivity. Particularly noticeable were her secure sense of rhythm, youthfully spirited vitality, and transparent phrasing. Regrettably, the Steinway grand on stage had very limited ringing quality in the upper register, which sounded very much limited and jeopardized the palette of colors and tonal range our soloist sought.

Yuja Wang - Picture © Felix Broede/DG

Ms. Wang entered with a choice of tempo which was appropriate, although at times in this Allegro (and later, in the Rondo–Allegro) movement, the Orchestra had difficulties in achieving a good ensemble with her. Two of the obvious cases occurred at the end of the major sections. The most unforgiving instance occurred after Ms Wang’s bravura passage at the conclusion of the solo exposition. Over the pianist’s expected trills, the mysterious, but romantic, horn call shone, cleverly accompanied by the clarinets and the horns, but the Orchestra failed to continue without break, entering fraction of a second later than it should. The cadenza was well done by Ms. Wang, although it sounded too transparent and straight–forward to my taste. The coda was noteworthy, it is amongst the most unusual of the five Beethoven Concerti, for it opens with a great sense of mystery and tension: the soloist and orchestra jointly conveying this darkened atmosphere.

The Largo is one of Beethoven’s most extensive and highly decorated slow movements. It has once been said that with this particular movement ‘the more Beethoven aspired towards the spiritual in [his] music, the more apparent that the written note is insufficient and inexact.’ Imagination is the key to open this music both to musicians and listeners alike, probing closer into what is behind the written notes. After all, the written notes are only a means to an end. Besides her noted technical strengths and agility, Ms. Wang here gave us some wholly individual piano playing and I would attest that an heightened level of musical comprehension, of Beethoven’s music, is necessary before this music can truly transcend beyond the confines of her mind and her fingers. However, the affinity she has with this music clearly signals Ms. Wang to be on a right track.

In the boisterous Rondo–Allegro finale Beethoven exploits the conflicts between G–natural and G–sharp at several places – the first from the pianist and then with the strings. Ms. Wang took advantage of this underlying conflict to tease her listeners with great excitement. Here she was high–spirited, livelier by her account as a young pianist. Her touch was extraordinarily powerful considering her build, and I could sense her continuous efforts to bring out a vocal breath of the musical lines. This level of mastery would be obligatory for a piano virtuoso with years of seasoned experience, and it was pleasing to observe this musical gift growing in young Yuja Wang.

In her encore, the Mozart–Volodos Turkish March, with some minor additions by the pianist herself, Ms. Wang combined her exceptional technique with a mental discipline that was as welcome as it is rare. If her brilliance in execution was at times unduly hard and harsh, it was amply compensated for by her admirable sense of proportion and attention to fine details. Her touch and technique were like the brilliance of Chinese firecrackers, and with the benefits of acoustics in the Armenian Theatre, it was like listening to rainfalls in the springs of Mount Helicon, and she played with a limpid freedom, similar to how she took charge in the Rondo–Allegro of the Beethoven.

From the initial grave statements of Beethoven’s Prometheus Overture and Third Piano Concerto to the earthly conclusion of Brahms's Serenade No.1, Mr. Outwater and the KWS shaped each note with every bit of love and passion from one page to the next. Brahms wrote his Serenade No.1 in D when he was in his early twenties – certain less mature compositional aspects remain visible, but nonetheless, it is a work commendable by his youth and live–spirits. Mr. Outwater provided the required freshness and invigorating spirit, which could have easily persuaded to turn even the winter cold into the pleasantness of summer warmth. Take, for instance, the slow third movement, Adagio, where, despite the pace of the music, Mr. Outwater displayed an extrovert tendancy, a quality of love perhaps for the outdoors, which allowed the melodies to soar. Mr. Outwater navigated his way through the score with a forward momentum and a visionary outlook. This was a piece of joyful elements – both to hear and to watch.

Anyone who has heard the recordings of the KWS with its former director Raffi Armenian on CBC Records in the two Brahms Serenades may recall a similar glowing richness and warmth compared with this live performance of the First Serenade. Overall, tempi were skillfully chosen and articulated, sonorities were full and phrases came and turned with natural gracefulness. This performance by Edwin Outwater and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony highlighted the coaching of a marvelous conductor, whose promising career is irrefutable.

Patrick P L Lam


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