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Review: Dallas Symphony gala filled the Meyerson, but Lang Lang wasn’t a subtle soloist

The pianist brought his signature theatrics, but Rachmaninoff wanted a lighter touch.

It’s been a long time since an audience has filled the Meyerson Symphony Center’s choral terrace for a Dallas Symphony Orchestra classical concert. But there they were, enthusiastic fans, for the orchestra’s sold-out gala concert Saturday.

Such was the rock star draw of the evening’s soloist, pianist Lang Lang, booked for one of the most popular piano concertos, Rachmaninoff’s Second. After the concerto, oddly, music director Fabio Luisi also conducted the orchestra in the Rossini William Tell Overture.

Beforehand, patrons who’d paid extra and donned tuxes and evening gowns glided around the lobby before settling down to an elegant dinner of beef filets and blackened prawns (butternut squash ravioli for vegetarians). Gala funds, including from a trip raffle, were to benefit the DSO’s educational programs.

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The Dallas Symphony Orchestra gala dinner was held in the Meyerson Symphony Center's lobby...
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra gala dinner was held in the Meyerson Symphony Center's lobby before the concert on Sept. 28, 2024. Funds, including from a trip raffle, were to benefit the DSO’s educational programs.(Scott Cantrell)
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Lang Lang belongs to a class of musicians who draw rolled eyes — and worse — from critics but thrill fans who are otherwise rare visitors to high-art palaces like the Meyerson. His mere appearance on the Meyerson stage drew whoops and hollers, as well as loud applause. There was of course a roaring ovation at the end of the concerto.

With arms theatrically thrown in the air or waved off to the side, with soulful gazes into the distance, Lang Lang is nothing if not a showman. With agile fingers, he produced enormous sounds from the piano. But how well did he serve Rachmaninoff?

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Rachmaninoff was one of the most celebrated pianists of the 20th century, and his 1929 recording of the concerto with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra demonstrates real musical partnership. The piano dominates when it should but doesn’t hesitate to become texture filling when the orchestra has more important melodic roles.

Saturday night’s performance, by contrast, often seemed more about Lang Lang than about Rachmaninoff. The orchestra, though it played capably, often felt like a shy date in the shadow of the celebrity.

Lang Lang wouldn’t relinquish the spotlight even when violas and cellos took up the first movement melody, and when flutist David Buck and clarinetist Gregory Raden beautifully floated their second movement tunes.

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Music as lushly romantic as Rachmaninoff’s doesn’t need sentimentalizing, but Lang Lang kept pushing and pulling it to the edge of breaking points. Luisi’s extensive experience accompanying singers surely came in handy for keeping the orchestra coordinated. The finale took off lickety-split, with lots of thundering pianism at the end.

For my money, this concerto wants pianism more quicksilver than thunderous, though with plenty of power at the right moments. It wants a more integral sense of structure than the succession of spotlights we got Saturday night.

But the audience loved it, and there were two encores: a Romance sans paroles by French composer Charlotte Sohy — elegantly played — and Lang Lang’s arrangement of Elton John’s music for Disney’s The Lion King.

A quintet of DSO cellists, led by principal Christopher Adkins, created a magical opening for the Rossini, after which Luisi set off the “Lone Ranger” gallop at a breathtaking pace.

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