Xian Zhang conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra and soloist Jonathan Biss in Schumann’s Piano Concerto. Photo by Michael J. Lutch/Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In Tuesday’s (10/29) Harvard Crimson (Boston, Massachusetts), Lara R. Tan writes, “On Oct. 19, the Boston Symphony Orchestra presented a concert featuring the works of Chinese-American composer Chen Yi, Robert Schumann, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The concert also featured Chinese-American conductor Xian Zhang making her Symphony Hall debut and pianist Jonathan Biss. The evening opened with Chen’s Landscape Impression, a nine-minute tone poem inspired by two 11th-century Chinese poems. Combining the Western classical music tradition of the tone poem with the monumental cultural edifice of Chinese poetry, this made for a stunning opener. Zhang brought an uncanny level of control and precision to this demanding score from its entrancing opening all the way through its atonal and microtonal contours. The musical effects in the piece were abundant, including extended harmonics and percussive pizzicati by the lower strings creating a swirling soundscape that resolved in a thrilling D major resolution—perhaps the first and only clear sign of familiar tonality in the whole piece.” Landscape Impression was commissioned by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Xian Zhang; they gave the work’s world premiere in June 2023.
