Yuja Wang steals the show on tour with the Swedish Radio

In a week where we learnt that Finnish conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen sealed his teenage decision to enter the music profession by joining his father in ‘a little sip of cognac’, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra’s European tour under his leadership may give further cause for celebration. Joining the Concertgebouw stage, a resplendent Yuja Wang for two piano concertos, each with their own dazzling outfit. Six encores later, and it looked like the party was far from over.

The programme

Yuja Wang plays Rautavaara

Wang’s poised descent of the Concertgebouw stairs – the first of many this evening in her trademark Christian Louboutin heels – was a feat in itself. But the more immediate challenge was to convince even the most ardent sceptics by finding a compelling lyricism amidst Einojuhani Rautavaara’s First Piano Concerto, full of cacophonous labyrinthine tone clusters. From the outset, the battle was real as the piano’s languorous melodies faced roaring horns. But from that very first triangle ting, colourful bravura, tinged with a jazzy hue, filled the auditorium. Careful voicing from both Wang and Salonen allowed orchestral flourishes and Rautavaara’s childlike melodies to emerge from an almost Lisztian palette – albeit somewhat more dissonant – and abruptly interrupted by a cinematic gong.

Translucent violins to open the Adagio set a very different scene as the piano’s chorale and accompanying decorative flourishes pitted oriental charm against metallic brutality. Her ensuing, pulsating Finale was unrelenting. Aided admirably by her new best friends, she cut through all the noise and convinced the Amsterdam audience to give this much overlooked composer a second chance.

Yuja Wang at the Concertgebouw — Yuja Wang plays Einojuhani Rautavaara’s fiendishly difficult *First* *Piano Concerto*
© Simon van Boxtel

Two encores followed, each revealing different insights into her persona: Gluck’s Melodie – with its delicious pianissimo – and Prokofiev’s fiendish Toccata Op. 11 whose relentless octaves appeared like a walk in the park.

Yuja Wang Salonen Swedish RSO — Dress #1 | Yuja Wang and Esa-Pekka Salonen © Clare Varney

Yuja Wang plays Ravel

Returning to the stage for Ravel’s Piano Concerto for Left Hand, ominous murmurings closely followed by intense orchestral swells drew parallels between turbulent times, past and present.

But attention soon turned to Wang whose innate musicality simply reaches depths few other pianists fear to tread. Her fervour, prompting others to find the very best of themselves. Sitting slightly back on the stool, she weighed delicacy and vulnerability against layer upon layer of sultry swagger before building to a deafening conclusion.

In contrast to her often bravura flourishes, a quiet calm descended for her final two encores: Handel’s Minuet in G minor and Scriabin’s Prelude Op. 11 no. 11.

The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Framing the evening, two very different orchestral works, both offering an illuminating insight into the strength of this highly disciplined and hugely impressive ensemble.

Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony with its expansive opening, allowed the SRSO to show off their rich, lustrous strings led by Malin Broman who I last saw at the Concertgebouw in June 2025 as the very classy guest concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In fact, as the trombone chorale took hold, it became clear just how comfortable the SRSO seemed in this trickiest of acoustics. Nothing was forced. Yet as things started to swell, and swirling strings faced soaring horns head-on, under Salonen’s careful guidance, they reached their final destination in style.

Similarly, extremes of dynamics in Debussy’s glorious La Mer radiated in the resonant Concertgebouw. Debussy’s turbulent sea now awash with colour, entrusting a solitary cor anglais to calm the storm before Salonen whipped them into an almighty tumult. Not a step out of place, especially from their rock solid brass.

Two more encores

Not to be outdone, they continued the party with two more encores: a little J.S. Bach from Anna Magdalena’s Notebook arranged for strings, and a rip-roaring rendition of Sibelius’s Karelia Suite. Almost worth a trip to Stockholm to see them perform on their home turf in Berwaldhallen.