PSO delivers glorious season finale

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Following last weekend’s world premiere and Yo-Yo Ma appearance, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Friday delivered a triumphant season finale program with world-renowned pianist Emanuel Ax.

Manfred Honeck conducted music by Beethoven and Berlioz in Heinz Hall, with tenor Paul Appleby, the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Youth Chorus crowding onstage for Berlioz’s “Te Deum” afterintermission.

The evening began with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, “Emperor,” concluding this season’s Beethoven piano concerto cycle of all five of the master’s concerti. Mr. Ax playedwith an ease and assurance that only comes from years studying and performing a work, matched by his boundless creativity and spontaneity. The first movement was a brisk, thrilling affair, with orchestra and soloist passing melodies back and forth with spellbinding precisionand grace.

Mr. Ax’s second movement was pure tranquility, and he kicked into overdrive for an exhilaratingRondo finale.

After the break, Mr. Honeck demonstrated once more anuncanny ability to balance enormous musical forces. He marshaled the combined might of the full orchestra and the two choirs for a majestic Pittsburgh premiere of “Te Deum,” a Christian hymn of praise set to music by numerous composers. Berlioz’s interpretation is thickly scored, with voice parts often doubled by various instrumental groups. The performers played and sang with sensitivity and achieved a gorgeous variety of timbre. Mr. Appleby, the tenor soloist, was especially tender in the fifth movement, and the choir’s a cappella response to his melodies shivered with feeling.

Quadruple cymbal crashes in the second movement notwithstanding, the pageantry of “Te Deum’s” finale was fitting for the end of a strong PSO season.