April 5, 2025
Bass Hall
Fort Worth, Texas – USA
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano, conductor; Garrick Ohlsson, piano.
Pyotr TCHAIKOVSKY: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
Sergei RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3
Gregory Sullivan Isaacs | 8 APR 2025
On Saturday, April 5, in Bass Performance Hall, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presented its “Gala Evening.” This event was a patron appreciation and fundraising concert with an optional black tie dinner served afterward. The concert opened with a terrific rendering of Tchaikovsky’s bittersweet Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, followed by guest artist Garrick Ohlsson playing Rachmaninoff’s spectacular Piano Concerto No. 3 with music director Robert Spano on the podium.
Traditionally, gala concerts are fundraising events and usually feature a PR-buffed virtuoso du jour that will draw a wider audience as well as the classical cognoscenti. Thus, Olhsson was not an obvious choice for the occasion, although those “in the know” consider him the pinnacle of pianists today.
The repertoire for the concert hit a home run. After opening with some gorgeous Tchaikovsky, we heard Rachmaninoff’s ever-popular Piano Concerto No. 3. This is doubly true in Fort Worth because this city is the home of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, where it is frequently the finishing choice of many of the winning contestants. Not only is this concerto filled with lush and ripe romanticism, but it is also chock-full of so many mind-blowing transcendental technical challenges that it is considered the Matterhorn of concerti.
But if you were expecting a showy, grandiose, sweat-soaked, and hair-tossing performance, you might have been a little disappointed. Instead of physical fireworks, Ohlsson delivered a definitive performance that dazzled, but not with extraneous flash. He dazzled us with a quiet and innate elegance, superb musicianship, astonishing technical mastery, and loving attention lavished on every single note and detail of the score.
Spano, a conductor who also eschews flash, proved to be the perfect partner in this performance. The pair had played this work together before in concert and even recorded it. So it was little surprise that they were in agreement on every nuance in this rubato-laden score. Ohlsson had the expressive freedom that his interpretation needed to fully flourish without having to worry about staying with a less sensitive conductor. The orchestra was equally outstanding. They are better every time I hear them. The ensemble is responsive yet tightly together, the solo players are all top-notch, and their intonation is noticeably spot-on.
If you missed the concert or just want to relive it, a CD of the concerto was released in 2011 featuring Ohlssohn and Spano with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, on the post-Telarc-era ASO Media label [ASO Media CD-1003] distributed by Naxos. ■
Pianist Garrick Ohlsson and conductor Robert Spano take a bow at the FWSO’s annual Gala concert. Garrick Ohlssohn solos with Robert Spano and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in their annual Gala concert. (credit: Karen Almond)
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra: fwsymphony.org
- Robert Spano: robertspanomusic.com
Read more by Gregory Sullivan Isaacs.
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