“Big band orchestral writing jostles with Latin American, gospel, Hollywood-like themes and several cadenzas in the classical style, which show off Wang’s glittering finger-work. Nothing lasts long and the concerto is held together by its energy.
[Abrams’s Piano Concerto] gets a flamboyant performance from Wang and Abrams, who conducts the Louisville Orchestra, enough to make a glitzy, if fleeting impact in a live concert.”“The piano demigod’s forthcoming album (releasing March 10) features a 40-minute piano concerto written for her by Louisville Orchestra music director Teddy Abrams, plus a rollicking four-minute piece for solo piano by another music director, Michael Tilson Thomas, longtime leader of the San Francisco Symphony.
MTT’s piece is irresistible, opening with a catchy kind of cat-and-mouse motif that builds to a funky, rocking crescendo. From then on, the music alternates between more contemplative passages tinged with jazz and the motorized theme… let Wang’s rock and roll performance bulldoze right over you. The last 30 seconds are a concussive tour de force, and more proof that she is among the most masterful pianists of her generation.”