By JAMES H. LEWIS
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra welcomes concertgoers to its 2026-2027 season with a stunning performance at Heinz Hall this weekend while bidding adieu to one of its most beloved musicians.
Most orchestral concerts follow a familiar pattern: an introductory piece is followed by a concerto in three movements featuring a solo artist. After the intermission, the concert concludes with a full four-movement symphony. This weekend’s performance flipped the order, presenting the symphony before the intermission and returning with the concerto.
One reason for this is that Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony #4 in A Major (the Italian) is comparatively brief, lasting just under half an hour, while Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto #2 in B-flat major is in four movements and lasts nearly twice as long. That, however, was only part of the reason for the switch.
The performance opened with a short piece, Masquerade, by contemporary British composer Anna Clyne, which Maestro Manfred Honeck praised as he introduced it. First performed at the Last Night of the Proms by the BBC Symphony under the direction of American Marin Alsop, the piece consists of a series of cascading chord progressions, linked by glissandi, which is passed from one section to another. It quickly resolves into an English country dance melody, presented once in traditional form, and returns as a tango.
Mendelssohn conceived Symphony #4 during a winter and spring he spent in Italy. He called it the most amusing piece he had written to that point, but continued to revise it during his lifetime and was still not satisfied at his death. Yet it remains a remarkable piece. The opening movement, allegro vivace, is one of Mendelssohn’s most familiar and beloved themes, played at a breakneck pace. Woodwinds state an opening, which the strings develop into an initial theme. The full orchestra joins in, playing a fortissimo section that descends into a quiet recitation of the original theme.
The second movement begins as a scherzo, introducing a second theme which the sections pass along themselves fuguelike. The third movement is in three-quarter time, a minuet, followed by the final movement, a rollicking dance number that recalls the theme and lightheartedness of the first, but with more intensity. The symphony ends with a final fortissimo climax that brought the audience to its feet.
Brahms’ Piano Concerto was performed by Gerstein Kirill, an American pianist born in the former Soviet Union. Gerstein, who is now Professor of Piano at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin, made his orchestral debut performing Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and this weekend turned his attention to its successor, which Brahms wrote two decades later.
The piano enters immediately in the first, allegro non troppo movement, then plays a duet with a solo horn introducing the first theme before the full orchestra joins in stating a lyrical second. The interplay between horn and piano reemerges to present a lyrical restatement of the second theme and a triumphant climax.
The second movement, allegro appasianato, presents the third theme, with Gerstein executing a complex pianissimo passage in double octaves. The pace increases to breakneck speed and a dramatic close.
(Image courtsey PSO)
From the first notes of the andante third movement, the other reason for the placement of the concerto at the end of the performance became apparent. The lyrical piece opens with the piano playing a duet with a single cello, performed by Anne Martindale Williams. This is her final performance with the PSO. She began her career fifty years ago as Associate Principal Cellist under William Steinberg. André Previn appointed her Principal three years later, a position she has held ever since. In marking her retirement, President and CEO Melia Tourangeau put it simply: “She devoted her entire career to the PSO.” The movement ended with an extended duet between the two artists.
The final movement, which began without interruption, opened as a dance with sections reminiscent of Brahms’ Hungarian rhapsodies. Gerstein performed a deft right-handed series of octaves that ended the concerto with a burst of joy.
As he and Honeck took their bows, Gerstein reached for Williams’ hand and brought her forward to stand with him. He took two more curtain calls, insisting that she join him and Honeck for both.
It was a fitting tribute to one of the orchestra’s most treasured musicians, one who broke the glass ceiling at a time when the section leaders of almost every major symphony orchestra were male. The PSO will miss her artistry, kindness, and ever-present smile.
The PSO’s classical series resumes Friday, October 16, and Sunday, October 18, with Rachmaninoff’s Symphony #2.
James Lewis is a former public media professional and consultant who now writes fiction. Many of his eleven novels are set in Pittsburgh, his adopted home.
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