Reviews

It's been five years since the Monterey Symphony orchestra last offered an all-piano series, as it is with its 72nd season's "Concert Grand." The first installment clocks this weekend opening with Bohemian composer Antonín Dvorák's uber-adored New World Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, an oft-performed masterwork that's been universally beloved since its 1895 debut – so much so that a recording of it was deposited on the moon during the Apollo 11 landing in 1969.

The second half of this weekend's recitals feature the return of audience favorite Orion Weiss, who will perform Tchaikovsky's legendary Piano Concerto No. 1. Weiss, who is not yet 40, first performed the work at age 17 with the Baltimore Symphony. It was one of the first piano concertos he learned.

"I've known it for a long time but I didn't play it so much that it became rote," Weiss says. "Every time I come back to it I rediscover this amazing work. It tells me different stories every time."

Audiences will immediately recognize the concerto's opening melodic theme, which has been used in countless film and television scores.

Weiss was last heard here two years ago, when he gave a riveting recital of American Edward MacDowell's Piano Concerto No. 2. It was that outing that cemented his return this weekend. It is a beast of a piece, replete with technique-challenging descending chromaticism and ascending arpeggio structures in a blitzkrieg-fast middle movement requiring immense stamina. The composition is both explosive and delicate, and Weiss handled those extremes with ease.

"It's a really great, rarely performed American masterpiece," Weiss says. "It's virtuoso-level technically, for sure."

Symphony music director Max Bragado-Darman says Weiss' last local concert "was so successful and his playing so brilliant that the local audience fell absolutely in love with him."

The pianist opened the 91st season of the Carmel Music Society last weekend with a diverse program featuring works by Grieg, Schubert, Schumann and Ravel, and has spent the past week locally doing outreach in music education programs at area schools and senior centers.

"Monterey has a great symphony orchestra with a great conductor, and has such a love for the arts," Weiss says. "That's special, and it's also one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. I love it here."

The show is Saturday and Sunday.