Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra Daniel Meyer, conductor Timothy Chooi, violin Palace Theatre Greensburg, PA October 18, 2025
Khachaturian: Suite from Masquerade Korngold: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 Encore: Corigliano: Red Violin Caprices Borodin: Symphony No. 2 in B minor
Last weekend, the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra opened its 57th season at Greensburg’s Palace Theatre. The repertoire selected for the occasion was not only alluring, but somewhat off-kilter for an evening that skirted any overly-familiar warhorses. Opening the program was the five-movement suite from Aram Khachaturian’s incidental music to the Lermontov play Masquerade.
Timothy Chooi performs with Daniel Meyer and the Westmoreland Symphony, photo credit WSO
One of the Armenian composer’s most recognizable melodies came in the opening Waltz, given with panache. A languid Nocturne contrasted, with a fine solo from concertmaster Jason Neukom. Conductor Daniel Meyer gave the flamboyant Mazurka character by way of a flexible rubato. A lyrical trumpet solo (Adam Gillespie) highlighted the Romance ahead of the tongue-in-cheek Galop which closed.
The sumptuous Violin Concerto of Erich Wolfgang Korngold introduced Timothy Chooi as soloist. Lush, honeyed sounds of this late-Romantic idiom were searingly beautiful, and Chooi’s attention to detail conveyed its intricacies with artful phrasing. The central Romance was of quiet repose before energetic finale of coruscating virtuosity. As an encore, Chooi further impressed in a technically brilliantsegment of the Red Violin Caprices by John Corigliano.
The real rarity came in Alexander Borodin’s Symphony No. 2 in B minor which occupied the second half. Though seldom-performed, it’s Borodin’s most important large-scale instrumental work, and one of few symphonic examples from the so-called Russian Five. A big-boned theme — this was not an evening for subtlety — that drew on Russian folk tradition made for an attention-getting opening. The writing is perhaps a bit heavy-handed, but Meyer’s careful balance ensured matters weren’t overdone.
A fleet scherzo danced by, almost in the manner of Mendelssohn, and a downtempo section was especially lovely — and included some striking scoring for flute and triangle. The Andante was noted for a gleaming horn solo (Mark Addleman), setting up the grandiose and jubilant finale.
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Manfred Honeck, conductor Emanuel Ax, piano Heinz Hall Pittsburgh, PA February 21, 2025
Ishizaki: Spin Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K503 Encore: Chopin: Nocturne No. 7 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 1 Korngold: Symphony in F-sharp major, Op. 40
All three works on Manfred Honeck’s generous Pittsburgh Symphony engaged in some fashion with the rich musical heritage of Vienna. The opening turned to a local voice, 24-year-old Pittsburgh area native Hannah Ishizaki, currently a doctoral student in music composition at Princeton (see NEXTpittsburgh for a lovely interview). Receiving its world premiere was Spin, a five-minute curtain-raiser that drew on dance traditions as disparate as Viennese waltz and electronic dance music.
Pre-concert interview with piccolo Rhian Kenny, composer Hannah Ishizaki, and assistant conductor Moon Doh
The work began almost in media res, as if it had always been in motion, dropping the needle in the thick of things. Driving rhythms made for an exciting listen, and Ishizaki made skillful use of the large orchestra she employed. A homecoming for the composer, writing for this orchestra in this hall is not without deep personal significance. A solo passage invoking a kinetic dance club beat was given to the contrabassoon, whom the composer counts as a mentor.
There’s hardly a more choice soloist in a Mozart piano concerto than Emanuel Ax, and the regal no. 25 in C major was a particularly fine vehicle for the pianist’s pearly technique and refined interpretation. A bold opening was fitting for one of the composer’s grandest conceptions in the medium, and the orchestra offered a nuanced reading, with detailed inflections and attention to the inner voices. The pianist’s entry was in the shape of just a single line, hesitant at first, before its full flourishing, displaying the crystalline, rippling playing of this masterful Mozartean.
Easily surmounting the decorative trills, rapid scales, and other technical demands, Ax also offered his own cadenza, an essay artfully expressive and wide-ranging. The central Andante served as a songful blending of piano and orchestra, and the finale brimmed with Viennese elegance, pointed and articulate. More so than the typical Mozart finale, it also probed the lyrical, particularly when Ax was in a lovely dialogue with the winds. A warmly enthusiastic reception — Ax seemed visibly moved — brought him back for an encore in a Chopin nocturne, a quantity which starkly contrasted the languid and the dramatic.
Something of a Mozart of his day, Erich Wolfgang Korngold was a prodigy in Vienna of extraordinary precocity. Fleeing the Nazis, he then found fame and fortune in Hollywood where he became one of the first major composers of film scores (John Williams cites him as a major influence). His sole symphony dates from the mid-1950s and is cast in the unusual key of F-sharp major. It’s not a work one encounters in concert often, but seems to have had a resurgence lately — a performance by the Berlin Philharmonic was quite memorable for this listener, and The Cleveland Orchestra has also programmed it in a recent season.
A jagged primary theme took shape in the clarinet, teetering on the brink of tonality, but firmly residing in the late Romantic tradition. Honeck and the PSO delivered a bracing, razor-sharp reading of this dense score with singular drama. As sumptuous as it gets, it’s almost to the point of excess and — as if one perhaps had a few too many slices of sachertorte. A high-octane scherzo followed, further showing the variegated color spectrum, with particularly piquant splashes from the piano and celesta. Matters were at the very edge of control without ever falling into chaos, and the brass passages had the cinematic effect of a film score.
Korngold looked towards Austrian compatriot Anton Bruckner in the towering slow movement, conceived in this case as a memorial to FDR. Brass and strings resounded through Heinz Hall, swelling to lush textures, though a solo passage for flute was delicately forlorn. The finale returned to the vigor and angular gestures of the opening, and militant brass fanfares threaded George M. Cohan’s Over There into the score. A welcome opportunity to hear a major if infrequently performed work — and certainly a highlight of the PSO season thus far.
In a brief post-concert performance, a quintet of PSO string players offered the first movement of Dvořák’s String Quintet No. 2, Op. 77. The use of double bass gives this work an orchestral heft, and made for a delightful capstone to the Dvořák heard the previous week.
Manfred Honeck, Emanuel Ax, and the Pittsburgh Symphony
quasi-faust 