At Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, on the evening of Tuesday, March 19th, I had the pleasure of attending a wonderful concert featuring the New York Philharmonic effectively led here by the ensemble’s Conductor, Jaap van Zweden.

 

The program began marvelously with an excellent reading of Felix Mendelssohn’s extraordinary, evocative The Hebrides Overture, Op. 26, which is possibly the finest of the composer’s works. (The orchestra will perform his classic “Scottish” Symphony later in the week.)

 

An exceedingly impressive soloist in his New York Philharmonic subscription debut Conrad Tao, then entered the stage for a superior rendition—playing his own admirable cadenzas—of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s brilliant Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, K.453, from 1784. The initial Allegro has a graceful opening that builds in intensity while remaining ebullient throughout. The movement becomes especially sparkling— although with a hint of deeper emotions—with the entry of the piano. This more serious undercurrent comes to the forefront as the music develops; the movement ends affirmatively.

 

The introductory measures of the ensuing Andante—another exceptionally beautiful Mozart slow movement—have a stately pace; with the appearance of the piano, the music acquires a greater solemnity which is of a reflective kind, but with contrasting passages conveying a subdued but melodious joyousness. After a powerful cadenza, the movement concludes gently.

 

The closing Allegretto recaptures the complexities of mood in the first movement; it is effervescent on the whole, especially in the exhilarating Presto finale that ends with a quiet force. An enthusiastic ovation elicited two rewarding encores from the pianist: first, his own enjoyable, highly virtuosic transcription of Art Tatum’s 1953 recording of Harold Arlen’s glorious song for the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, “Over the Rainbow,” with lyrics by Yip Harburg; and second, Maurice Ravel’s exquisite, enchanting and dazzling “Le jardin féerique,” from his celebrated piano suite, Ma mère l'Oye.

 

The second half of the event was at least equally memorable, consisting of a superb account of Ludwig van Beethoven’s magisterial Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67. About it, Robert Schumann wrote:

 

Let us be silent about this work! No matter how frequently heard, whether at home or in the concert hall, this symphony invariably wields its power over people of every age like those great phenomena of nature that fill us with fear and admiration at all times, no matter how frequently we may experience them.

 

The opening of the enormously famous, thrilling Allegro con brio is maximally suspenseful and a sense of urgency is sustained throughout the movement but there are leisurely passages of an almost pastoral quality. The Andante con moto that follows is often jubilant but with some questioning moments; incomparably elegant, it is nonetheless not without a certain playfulness. The subsequent Allegro begins somewhat mysteriously but more emphatic music quickly intrudes; in general, it has a darker tone than the movement that precedes it but much of it is exultant. Although propulsive, again there are bucolic interludes. The movement transitions dramatically to the enthralling, dynamic and triumphant finale, also markedAllegro,which concludes magnificently.

 

The artists again deservedly received abundant applause.