The Orchestra Hall politics of the Daniel Barenboim era prevented the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from paying attention to the abundantly gifted Mexican pianist Jorge Federico Osorio until practically everybody else did. Despite the fact that Osorio and his family have long called Highland Park home, eight years had to pass between his previous solo engagement with the CSO at Symphony Center and his appearances at this week’s subscription concerts.
Fortunately our prophet without (much) local honor made up for lost time with a fresh and rewarding performance of Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major at the orchestra’s Afterwork Masterworks concert on Wednesday night. Spanish conductor Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, himself an infrequent visitor to these hallowed precincts, conducted.
With his sterling technique Osorio can roar through this beloved Romantic concerto with the best of them; and certainly the clarity and strength with which he dispatched the furious octave runs of the final section, at top speed, kept the excitement quotient high. But the musician in Osorio prevented self-regarding display from rearing its unseemly head.
Osorio can summon a firmly weighted tone when he needs to, while his rhythmic reflexes are more than a match for Liszt’s scampering flights of bravura fancy. When joined in duet with John Sharp’s cello, his sound took on a purling, cantabile quality. The orchestra proved on good behavior under Fruhbeck’s watchful eye and ear, and the audience responded with a generous ovation.
It’s good news that Osorio and the CSO will favor Ravinia with back-to-back concerts of the five Beethoven piano concertos in July.
Fruhbeck hedged his bets by filling the rest of his program with a double helping of Richard Strauss – the tone poem “Don Juan” and the suite from “Der Rosenkavalier.” How could any conductor fail to raise the roof with music so indelibly a part of CSO tradition?
An old pro whose gestures readily mirror perceptive ideas, Fruhbeck paced “Don Juan” so well that it had shape as well as picaresque thrills. From the swaggering thrust of the opening pages through the love scene (complete with Eugene Izotov’s melting oboe solo) to the dying fall at the end, the don’s romantic exploits registered vividly.
Some of the brass playing in the “Rosenkavalier” suite bordered on the raucous, and the principal horn suffered a conspicuous blooper. Still, one could hardly complain, given the idiomatic lilt Fruhbeck brought to the waltzes and the high degree of schmaltzy sentiment and rollicking humor he elicited from one of the greatest Strauss orchestras on the planet.
Weber’s “Die Freischutz” Overture, not performed on Wednesday, will be added to a repeat performance of this program on Saturday night.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.
Price: $22-$199; 312-294-3000, cso.org
