For their aptly named Magnificent Piano Maestro concert, Queensland Symphony Orchestra welcomed back former Artist in Residence, Venezuelan-Argentine pianist Sergio Tiempo, to perform Grieg’s piano concerto. Tiempo played the brand new, one-of-a-kind Steinway & Sons Grand piano that QSO have been fundraising for since 2021, and which had travelled almost 16,000km from Hamburg, Germany (there’s a really great video here on the QSO website that shows some of the selection process for the piano).
For Magnificent Piano,Grieg’s concerto was paired with Brahm’s first symphony and a short piece by Australian composer Richard Mills, performed for the first time by QSO. Speaking to the audience before the concert began, clarinettist Brian Catchlove framed the concert as a meeting of three ‘best friends’ of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra: soloist Sergio Tiempo, conductor Johannes Fritzsch, and composer Richard Mills.
Mills’ short piece Impromptu, after Schubert opened the concert. Composed in 2014 as a commission by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Impromptu, after Schubert is in conversation with Schubert’s 19th century music for voice and his Unfinished Symphony. Crafted to sound like an improvisation, and making prominent use of the harp, the music seemed to be always changing direction but never in a way that was jarring.
Edvard Grieg’s Concerto in A Minor for Piano and Orchestra premiered in 1869 and was the only concerto Grieg composed. He wrote it in Denmark while visiting family, inspired by Robert Schumann’s 1845 piano concerto and Norwegian folk music. Sergio Tiempo’s performance of Grieg’s concerto was astonishing – he played with mesmerising speed and dexterity, mopping sweat from his forehead and inspiring a burst of applause from some members of the audience between the movements. The power and feeling of the concerto’s final moments left me moved and breathless.
After an interval, Brahms’ first symphony closed out the concert. Premiering in 1876, the symphony had taken at least fourteen years to complete, partly due to Brahms’ self-criticism and destruction of his early works, and partly because of the enormous pressure to follow Beethoven’s highly esteemed symphonies. Brahms’ first symphony is a journey – the first movement chilling and dark, full of drama and struggle; the second movement slower and sweeter, more meditative and spacious; the third movement brighter and more energetic again; and the finale movement full of atmosphere, increasing in speed and volume to a spirited finish. As always, QSO Principal Guest Conductor Johannes Fritzsch commanded the orchestra with straight back and vigorous gestures, and the stabbing of so many bows in the strings section of Brahms’ symphony was a visual spectacle as well as an aural one.
Fulfilling the promise in its name, Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Magnificent Piano exceeded expectations, and Sergio Tiempo’s spectacular performance of Grieg’s piano concerto has stayed with me.
Magnificent Piano was performed at the QPAC Concert Hall from 17 – 18 March 2023.
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