A Thrilling Ride

The Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra and conductor Yutaka Sado got their Nottingham visit off to a boisterous start with the overture to The Marriage of Figaro, in a reading full of dash and fire (Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, UK, 1 March 2017). After the social upheavals of Mozart's opera we listened to Beethoven engineering a quieter sort of revolution at the start of his Fourth Piano Concerto, turning the piano/orchestra relationship inside-out for a moment. Soloist Angela Hewitt spread her first chord, bringing an improvisatory feel to this magical opening, and the orchestra's response had just the right degree of mystery...