Cso Audio Program Notes

Esa-Pekka Salonen leads a program that pairs Brahms' captivating Variations on a Theme by Haydn with Schoenberg's hauntingly beautiful Transfigured Night and Bartók's serene and expressive Third Piano Concerto, featuring Mitsuko Uchida. “It was in the otherworldly slow movement that Uchida's profound poetic sensibility rose to the fore, building to an eloquent emotional climax from the simple, hushed chords of the opening bars—atmospheric yet as clear as ice water” (Chicago Tribune).