PORTLAND, Ore. — One of the main courses of the Nordic smorgasbord that the Oregon Symphony was prepared to serve Jan. 29 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall almost went into the garbage disposal. That’s because the featured soloist, Joyce Yang, had injured her hand the day before during the rehearsal of Grieg’s Piano Concerto. To the rescue came 28-year-old Ying Li, who caught a flight earlier in the day from New York City, and, without benefit of a rehearsal, delivered a performance to die for.
In addition to winning prizes at the 2021 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, and the Tri-Institutional Noon Recitals, Li has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra. Her resume includes a bachelor of music from the Curtis Institute and a master of music and artist diploma from The Juilliard School.
In his introduction to Li, music director David Danzmayr noted that taking on a performance with no rehearsal can be “terrifying and exhilarating” at the same time. Whatever the case, Li must have nerves of steel, because she played the Grieg from memory with confidence and outstanding expressivity. She made the quickest runs sparkle and handled the delicate passages with graceful sensitivity, especially when tapering the dynamics. She also created impressive crescendos that could be heard whenever the orchestra upped the volume.
The orchestra started a little tentatively, but once Danzmayr and forces realized that Li was not going to hold anything back, they relaxed and joined her in a collaboration that resulted in an electrifying performance. After the final notes settled into the hall, the audience immediately responded with an enthusiastic and sustained standing ovation, which brought Li back to center stage a couple of times for solo bows.
With acclamation still ringing about, Li calmed the atmosphere by returning to the keyboard and gave a stunning performance of Brahms’ Intermezzo, Op. 118, No. 2, allowing the lovely main melody to expand like a flower in bloom.
The second half of the concert showcased Wilhelm Stenhammar’s Symphony No. 2 in G minor. Considered one of Sweden’s greatest composers, Stenhammar has mostly been ignored by orchestras in North America. Danzmayr, in his introductory remarks, revealed that he discovered this piece while surfing on YouTube and felt compelled to get it in front of the public in Portland.
Completed in 1915, the Second Symphony has four movements that span about 50 minutes. The orchestra propelled the opening with vigor, exploiting a multitude of colors that expressed a lively optimism. In music that recalled Sibelius at times, members of the woodwind section evoked the natural world with a lilt that bordered on folk song. A choir of horns burnished several passages with gusto.
What struck this listener was how Stenhammar — after layering the sound to a tremendous crescendo — would hit the compositional pause button, start from the quietest dynamic possible with just a few instruments, and gradually incorporate more and more of them until a majestic and massive collage erupted. Sometimes this included an accelerando to make it all very exciting. But I just couldn’t grasp the overall structural and emotional journey. There wasn’t a movement that injected doubt, or a breakdown, or an atmosphere of something troubling. Instead, the composer seemed intent on building a magnificent, glorious edifice, and then starting over to compile another statement again and again — until the finale, which finished things off in a blaze of sonic beauty. That elicited strong applause from the audience, but I’m still scratching my head.
The concert began with Sibelius’ tone poem The Swan of Tuonela from The Four Legends from the Kalevala. The orchestra wonderfully evoked the mystical swan that flies around the realm of the dead in Finnish mythology. The lonesome elegance of the swan was magically conveyed by Jason Sudduth on English horn, and principal cellist Justin Park added just the right amount of darkness to the ambiance. Danzmayr inspired the orchestra to maintain a perfect sonic balance, which added to the hovering spookiness of the piece.
