By Peter Feher | ClevelandClassical
This article was originally published in Cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Rock stars are known to make certain demands on tour, stipulating everything they expect to find in their dressing rooms and onstage.
Pianists Yuja Wang and Víkingur Ólafsson — two of the biggest names in classical music today — have one request that’s absolutely essential. In order to team up in recital and tackle the virtuosic repertoire they want to play together, Wang and Ólafsson each need a separate piano.
And so a pair of Steinways sat carefully arranged in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 23. Both instruments had their lids off, and their keyboards were lined up center stage, the players side by side but facing in opposite directions.
After debuting as a duo in Europe last year, Wang and Ólafsson are now touring their blockbuster collaboration across the U.S. — including this stop at Severance for a single performance, presented as part of The Cleveland Orchestra’s recital series.
Two leading soloists sharing the spotlight might sound a little out of character, but with the right music on the program, both artists can showcase their signature strengths.
Franz Schubert’s Fantasie in F Minor was the odd piece out on Sunday. It was a curious decision to play this poignant duet, originally composed for piano four hands (two players at the same instrument), on two pianos. Schubert is said to have dedicated the work to a student and longtime love interest. If some inherent intimacy was missing from this performance, Wang and Ólafsson nonetheless came together in a brilliant display of technique.
John Adams’ “Hallelujah Junction” was an altogether better match for the duo. In recent years, both Wang and Ólafsson have premiered major concertos by the contemporary American composer, whose repetitions and propulsive rhythms coalesce into something spectacular here. The energy barely lets up over 15 hard-driving minutes, the pianists spurring each other on for long stretches, like in the pounding chords that conclude the first movement. Going head-to-head with anyone, Wang’s power is simply unsurpassed.
The duo seemed more like equal partners as they took on a transcription of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Symphonic Dances,” the most substantial piece of the afternoon. The arrangement, made by the composer himself, distills a prodigious orchestral work into a two-piano tour de force. Melodies and motifs are traded back and forth, with neither player dominating in the exchange. Where one mesmerizing waltz featuring Wang ended, Ólafsson would pick up with another .
A pleasant amorphousness characterized the entire recital, which segued between these larger compositions and a handful of delicate miniatures. Ólafsson’s penchant for conceptual programming was no doubt behind the inclusion of several 20th-century curios: Luciano Berio’s “Wasserklavier,” John Cage’s “Experiences No. 1,” Arvo Pärt’s “Hymn to a Great City,” and Conlon Nancarrow’s “Study No. 6” (in an arrangement by Thomas Adès).
Wang’s sense of showmanship meant the afternoon couldn’t conclude without a series of encores. Funnily enough, the duo ditched the second instrument to play some favorite pieces for four hands: Johannes Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 1”; three of the same composer’s Waltzes, Op. 39; and Antonín Dvořák’s “Slavonic Dance No. 2” from his Op. 72.
Ólafsson then conspicuously closed the cover over the keys, packing up this leg of the tour.
Peter Feher is managing editor of San Francisco Classical Voice, one of classical music’s leading online publications, and a correspondent for the website ClevelandClassical.com. He lives in Cleveland.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com February 27, 2025
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