Review | Lang Lang and Prokofiev meet in an performance of finesse and fire

Lang Lang is the star attraction for the first North American tour of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, and the celebrated Chinese pianist drew a large crowd Monday night at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. After making his early reputation as a power-pounding wunderkind, Lang Lang now has embraced a wider, more sophisticated repertoire.

For his Miami visit, however, he chose Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, an unabashed showpiece. Though he eschewed his former penchant for volume and flashy histrionics, Lang Lang imbued this 1921 tour de force with finesse and fire. The initial Allegro displayed his nimble fingerwork plus rhapsodic sweep, rhythmic incisiveness and a kaleidoscopic range of colors. He was superbly attuned to the mercurial mood changes in the theme and variations, and the finale went at lightning speed, building to a dazzling climax that was all the more effective for the absence of exaggerated accents and excessive volume.

In the central episode, Lang Lang displayed great sensitivity to the music's line and pulse, bringing a sense of sadness and poignancy to one of Chopin's most-distinctive melodies. He was splendidly supported by conductor Christoph Eschenbach and the Schleswig-Holstein ensemble, which were in perfect sync with the soloist's minute changes of tempo and emphasis. Eschenbach channeled luminous string textures and pinpointed Prokofiev's sardonic wind writing with acerbic precision.

In response to a prolonged ovation, Lang Lang offered an encore of a Chopin waltz, rekindling the spirit of a past generation of Chopin pianists by introducing emphatic hesitations, liberal rubato and rhythmic flexibility into the melodic line and clearly combining artistic maturity and musicality with superlative technique.

Composed of musicians younger than 27, the Schleswig-Holstein is the resident orchestra of a summer festival at Salzau Castle near Hamburg and is comparable to similar ensembles at Tanglewood and Aspen. Its string section displays hair-trigger agility and burnished tone, and Eschenbach exploited these strengths to the fullest in Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 (Classical). Except for an overly deliberate Gavotte, the performance moved at a rapid clip, and Eschenbach drew a beguiling singing line in the Larghetto and sparkling precision in the witty finale.

The opening chord of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A Major was not played in unison, but the ensemble quickly recovered as Eschenbach offered a patrician view of this ``apotheosis of the dance.'' He brought unusual depth and elegiac gravity to the Allegretto, and the horns were rock solid and precise in the trio of the Scherzo. Eschenbach took the finale at top speed to stunning effect, concluding a lithe, vivacious reading.

As an encore he led a tautly paced version of Beethoven's Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, in which the winds' bright timbres added zest to the high-energy performance.