NYO-USA All-Stars Play Carnegie Hall
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 09 October 2025 14:37
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Photo by Chris Lee
At the superb Stern Auditorium on the night of Tuesday, October 7th, I had the great pleasure to attend Carnegie Hall’s terrific, opening night gala concert featuring the NYO-USA All-Stars—i.e., the Alumni of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America—under the admirable direction of Daniel Harding.
The event started brilliantly with a sterling realization of three selections from Leonard Bernstein’s marvelous Symphonic Dances from West Side Story from 1960, beginning with the intensely lyrical “Somewhere,” one of the most beautiful songs in the score. The ensuing “Scherzo” is an elegant interlude, while the set finished with the jazzy, exuberant, propulsive “Mambo,” which concludes forcefully.
The sexiest of contemporary virtuosi, Yujia Wang, then entered the stage to conduct and dazzlingly play Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s fabulous Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23, completed in 1875. The famous opening of the initial movement, marked Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso, is exhilarating, quickly becoming immoderately passionate; a lilting, Slavic melody then comes to the fore, ushering in a moodier, more reflective section, but the music then at length ascends to a climactic passage succeeded by more elaborate developments, before accelerating to an exciting close. The following, Andantino semplice movement begins with a lovely, subdued theme that leads to a livelier episode before ending softly. The spectacular, Allegro con fuoco finale is animated and dance-like, even vigorous, but with quintessentially Romantic moments that progress toward its triumphant conclusion.
The evening finished at its acme, with a masterly version of Igor Stravinsky’s stunning 1919 Suite from his ballet The Firebird. It opens with an ominous Introduction followed by the delightful if almost disorienting The Firebird and its Dance and the Variation of the Firebird. The impressionistic, enchanting Rondo of the Princesses precedes the arresting, sinister but mesmerizing Infernal Dance of King Kashchei. The subsequent Lullaby is glorious and unutterably beautiful while the Finale is majestic and exultant.
The artists deservedly received a standing ovation.