On Wednesday, June 13th, the three PianoArts finalists each played a full concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts. Xiaohui Yang performed Mozart's Concerto No. 23, Emma Liu performed Schumann's Concerto in A Minor, and Sahun Hong closed out the evening with Beethoven's Concerto No. 3 in C Minor.
Yang, who was the first contestant to play, showed off a really nice, pretty, clear sound. She took a quiet, nuanced approach to Mozart, almost too quiet at times. For a great solo that got louder as she went along, however, listeners had to wait no longer than the end of the first movement. Her second movement began with a wonderfully sorrowful, subdued piano solo; her third started much more energetically as she set the table for the orchestra to come in. Her play was elegant in every respect; she produced a good sound and put some teeth into it late in the third movement, with her hands moving furiously. Yang put all her energy into a long, sprightly passage near the end that had the audience applauding almost before she finished.
Emma Liu was next, and she opened with a bang. Liu seemed to work exceptionally well with the violin section, allowing the violins to borrow her theme, complementing them, then breaking into a theme of her own. She would take their melodic tidbits, make them her own and pass them back to the other section. Kim was decisive on the long passages going up the keyboard, backed by an exultant orchestra. As the piece progressed, both Kim and the orchestra seemed to get more aggressive, each trying to get their point across (echoing Liu's story about Schumann's argument with his wife). Beautiful, melodious slow passages built and broke down the tension with the orchestra, finally reconstructing the melody as the first movement ended. Liu's second movement was more restrained and delicate, but when the time came, she went for broke. She worked well in the second movement and into the third on the grand choruses with the orchestra, keeping the piece loud but still a pleasure to listen to.
Sahun Hong closed out the program with an absolutely stunning Beethoven. You could just tell from his playing, he was absolutely in charge of the piece from beginning 'til end. Hong filled the stage as much as the orchestra did; he didn't appear intimidated or held back at all by the setting or the orchestra at his back. When he led into the big, blaring sound of the orchestra with those fast, hard passages, it sounded comfortable and natural. The many different characters and emotions expressed in the first movement must've been difficult to perform, but Hong was unruffled; he took the audience from a pleasant walk in the country to the eye of a thunderstorm and back again. Movement II was stately and sad; a few solitary piano notes scattered in the middle of a vast silence, then a chastened orchestra slowly starts up again, this time full of hope. In the third, Hong was given a vast blitzkrieg of notes to deal with, but I couldn't hear one out of place. He was almost dainty on the keys during the slow bits, before jumping up and bursting into song later on.
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