MUSIC REVIEW: Conrad Tao in Concert @ Severance Music Center by Lisa DeBenedictis

Pianist Conrad Tao performed a recital Cleveland Orchestra’s Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival on Friday May 17, joined by Cleveland Orchestra cellist Dane Johansen.

Tao, who has transformed from a world-renowned prodigy into a revered musical legend, performs, composes, and arranges classical and contemporary works to create programs with dynamic performances. Friday evening’s program featured an extraordinary performance of music by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Billy Strayhorn, Stephen Sondheim, Robert Schumann and Buddy Kay.

Tao is one of the finest pianists of his generation, and is eloquent and entertaining both as a narrator and storyteller. He invited his audience on a journey to celebrate the power of melody.

Tao is the perfect pianist to perform Rachmaninoff’s work. He presents the compositions with a similar aura of excitement, thrill and wonder, granting the listener a vicarious ride through Rachmaninoff’s world. Tao’s conversational prowess matches his wizardry on the keys, as he discusses music and what it means to him. Without the slightest hint of ego or pretention, Tao illustrates the ethereal world that consumes his mind in the most inviting and contagious manner, such that we can latch onto the sentiment and experience something similar — a courteous lending of his lens to the crowd. In an industry often fixated on formalities that sometimes breed exclusion, Tao is a breath of fresh air — a true leader with the purest intentions and love for the culture that he effortlessly spreads in his every move.

Upon becoming an American citizen in 1943, Sergei Rachmaninoff said, “This is the only place on earth where a human being is respected for what he is and what he does, and it does not matter who he is and where he came from.” The overarching theme of this year’s Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival is to expose power and influence in its many forms. Rachmaninoff combined immense passion for melody with lament over the powers that suppressed him in his home country to dispatch a subtle yet commanding strength in his complex compositions. Joyfulness triumphs the melancholy in some of his most important works after leaving his homeland, such as his arrangements of Paganini’s Rhapsodies. Tao brings out inflections of American jazz in Rachmaninoff’s later works, and the influences of his depth and emotion breathe through many jazz standards and show tunes.

The second half of the program featured Tao with Cleveland Orchestra’s premiere cellist Dane Johansen, delivering a fan-favorite rendition of Kay and Mossman’s “Full Moon and Empty Arms,” with Rachmaninoff’s “Cello Sonata” tying together a masterful night of music.

Northeast Ohio has been fortunate to experience Tao’s magic many times in the past decade, dating back to an intimate performance at Akron’s Tuesday Musical in 2015. In every performance he is able to move beyond a technically brilliant pianist to play the role of narrator or storyteller. His programs are rich with thought and intrigue, all aspects he eagerly shares with the audience.

[Written by Lisa DeBenedictis]