The other pieces on the program had their bright spots, and in Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, that light was soloist Hélène Grimaud.
To be sure, circumstances weren’t ideal. In the slow movement, Yamada couldn’t quite get the strings to move; in the finale, his conducting seemed to weigh the music down. The balance was off. But when Grimaud played alone, she revealed herself to be the same musician audiences have admired ever since her Symphony debut in 1993 (the same year she released her magnificent first recording of this piece). She phrased with utmost rhythmic nuance, especially in the unaccompanied aria of the slow movement and in her encore, the Bagatelle Op. 1, No. 2, by contemporary Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov. Her technique was flawless as ever; the first-movement piano cadenza, a fluent cascade of virtuosic arpeggiation and trills, was a joy.
