“Joyce Yang dazzled the Breakers on Saturday night with fire and power in an engaging selection of Russian piano favorites beginning with selections from Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons, op. 37a. She kept her hands close to the keyboard in the opening January movement subtitled By the Fireside and marked Moderato simplice ma espressivo in a visually compact manner that matched her warm and expressive melody―straight-forward but lyrical, and without excess, followed by close and rapid passagework of the most delicate, wispy and velvety textures. The first theme returns, and the movement closes with ppp arpeggiated passages up to the most sublime final chords in the highest registers. February followed with a lively Russian folk carnival dance where again compact yet stunning technical agility presents itself, yet never draws attention to itself, as the listener is transformed and transported over time and place into Tchaikovsky’s world of Russian winters and village fairs. As this was not a complete performance of the work, she skipped some months, and the lack of printed movement titles required one to consult the extended narrative in the handout to learn that April, May and June came in succession. The famous June – Barcarolle again came to us straightforwardly without sentimentality, in a quicker tempo than one normally hears; this gave more cohesion to the movement rather than drawing attention to its parts. Yang’s selection closed with the highly spirited August – Harvest. Though briefly bemoaning the missing months, we were soon to be elevated by treasures yet to come.”
Stephen Martorella
-The Boston Musical Intelligencer
