Joyce Yang returns to Wichita for concerto that starts with ‘a shock to the system’
Performing one of the best-known piano phrases in classical music is both terrifying and exhilarating for Joyce Yang.
“It’s like jumping off a cliff,” the pianist said of Edvard Grieg’s “Piano Concerto in A Minor,” which she’ll perform with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra next weekend. “You work on jumping off a cliff in the practice room so many times, but each time you do it in a concert it’s like incredibly adrenaline-pumping and your heart is going crazy playing that little bit that comes out of silence.”
The Grieg begins with a bombastic piano flourish that’s been used to accompany countless movie and TV scenes through the years.
“In a way it shouldn’t be a very technically hairy thing, but it is a shock to the system,” Yang said. “It’s so exposed. If you heard this once, that’s what you’re going to remember about this piece. It has to be perfect as you start off on the journey.”
Before her performance next Sunday afternoon at Century II, Yang predicts she’ll be playing the piece about 10 times backstage before walking onto the concert hall stage.
“I’ll be going through that slowly over and over, just so I’m really prepped to do it just right when I get my one shot,” she said.
A native of South Korea who moved to the United States at age 11 to study piano at Juilliard in New York, Yang said she learned the Grieg at age 13 or 14 for the school’s pre-competition department, even though she was not old enough for the program.
“That was the hot piece of the semester, so I got the music like everyone else, and I was like, ‘I’m going to learn that anyway,’” she said. “I just loved instantly how dramatic it was. The virtuosity right from the start really got to me.”
Yang did not, however, perform the piece until about 10 years later.
“It has come through many chapters as you live with the piece, you start to fall in love with the moments that remain hidden, really, sometimes for many years,” she said. “They sort of reveal themselves in those hushed and poetic powers – those moments get nestled between such dramatic moments that you don’t really think about them. Its lyricism opens up and you learn to create a more personal journey with it. This piece has so many great melodies and that will just carry itself. “
The Grieg, she said, gives a pianist the ability to be creative while concentrating to the notes in the score.
“I feel like some people play it very straightforwardly and some people take a lot of vibratos,” she said. “You have this wide range of interpretation, and it needs that freedom to maybe fall out of time, as if you’re looking at beautiful scenery.”
Yang said she imagines the scenery of Grieg’s native Norway when she plays the piece.
“There has to be this freedom to stop and breathe and take in the beauty,” she said. “At the same time, if you do that too much this piece has the danger of slipping away from its magic. There has to be this very gentle wind that keeps moving you along the journey.”
Next weekend’s performance will be Yang’s fourth with the Wichita Symphony, which will be guest-conducted by Laura Jackson, music director and conductor of Nevada’s Reno Philharmonic. The program also includes modern composer Patrick Harlin’s “Wilderness Anthology” and Sibelius’ “Symphony No. 2 in D Major.”
Yang recently moved from Birmingham, Ala., to Irvine, Calif., after her husband, Richard Cassarino, was hired as principal bassist for the Pacific Symphony.
Hunting for a house was difficult, she said, because the couple needed two separate areas where they could rehearse at the same time.
“It’s nice because we can play for each other when we’re not quite sure which direction to go musically,” she said. “He’s usually my first audience.”
WICHITA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
When: 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17
Where: Century II concert hall, 225 W. Douglas
Tickets: $10-$85, from the Century II ticket office, wichitasymphony.org or 316-267-7658
