Review from Zhu's Spokane Symphony Orchestra debut
It was a wonderful experience to be making my debut with Spokane Symphony Orchestra and maestro Nakahara with Mozart Piano Concerto No.21, K.467.
“It may seem that these qualities are not required to the same degree in a piece like the Mozart Concerto No. 21, but indeed they are. Mozart’s smaller orchestra and exquisite writing for keyboard simply expose the continual and incessant activity of his genius. The collaboration of Nakahara and Wang missed none of the myriad wonders of this masterpiece, and yet maintained the natural forward flow of the music.
Wang’s playing demonstrated perfection: beauty of tone, absolute evenness of touch, scrupulous accuracy of note values and tempo. But describing his playing in this way suggests a sort of frosty perfectionism which could not be further from what we witnessed. The miracle of performing Mozart as well as Zhu Wang does is that it produces the effect of complete spontaneity. Likewise, Nakahara kept in balance the countless witty, charming and expressive touches that sparkle in Mozart’s writing for orchestra with the heartfelt lyricism bear them, and us, along to the work’s joyous conclusion.
Responding to the cheers of the audience and applause from the musicians, Wang returned to the stage to perform as an encore the first movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 16 in G major Op. 31 No. 1. It allowed us to see that he is as capable of mastering Beethoven’s boisterous wit, sudden dynamic changes and flamboyant virtuosity as he is Mozart’s subtler qualities.”