Review: Simon Tedeschi plays Brahms Piano Concerto no.1

Review: Simon Tedeschi plays Brahms Piano Concerto no.1
April 8, 2016 Jacqueline

Following his recent solo performances of Pictures at an Exhibition, Simon Tedeschi earned this review of Brahms’ Piano Concerto no.1 with the Sydney Youth Orchestra, conducted by Alexander Briger in the opening concert of SYO’s 2016 season:

“After every performance I have seen of Tedeschi it feels like a tornado has hit the building, such is the muscular and indefatigable force with which he attacks the piano. He nearly lifted the roof off the NSW Art Gallery in January with his performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

The opening of the first movement… suited Tedeschi’s virtuosity well, with the many arpeggiated, rippling passages and successions of parallel octaves impressively accounted for, the drive and fervour maintained to the final fortissimo. The engagement between orchestra and pianist was spectacular… Tedeschi showed [in the second movement] that he is also capable of an understated and unpretentious tone … In the finale we return to where perhaps Tedeschi is at his best: a bracing, rugged Rondo Allegro. His hands were in constant motion, bouncing off the keys gymnastically…

Overall, this was a youthfully exuberant and authoritative rendition under a charismatic director.”

– Limelight Magazine, March 2016. Read the full review here