Photo: © Felix Broede / Deutsche Grammophone

Well, for the orchestra, the anticipation came to an end around 11:00 a.m. this morning.  The unassuming, young, Armani-clad Asian pianist strode onto the stage, was introduced to the orchestra to polite applause, and then proceeded to mesmerize much of the orchestra with his off-the-beaten-path approach to the beginning of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto.  I won’t give away how he does the beginning - it’s probably not much of a secret, but it’s better experienced with no advance knowledge, so I’ll leave it for you to discover if you have tickets to tonight’s sold out performance. [Read more →]

Piano phenom Lang Lang appears with the OSO tonight - and we hear him live for the first time at our dress rehearsal this morning - I’ll have some first impressions this afternoon.

NPR features a brief interview with minimalist pioneer Philip Glass (without whom there would likely be no John Adams, whose Chairman Dances we play on tonight’s concert) - hear the interview here.