Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Concert Hall, Helsinki Music Centre, Mannerheimintie 13 A, 00100 Helsinki, Finland

Another listing had Tony Siqi Yun playing Rachmaninov No.3. He gave an impressive rendition of Tchaikovsky’s B-flat minor Concerto, plenty of derring-do virtuosity, yes, but also a thoughtfulness that informed slower passages, as early as during the majestically presented opening, the FRSO and Thomas Søndergård fully supportive of and sensitive to Yun’s integrated approach in which his naturalness wooed the listener with lyrical lines, a range of touch that never spilled over into excessive loudness or unwarranted percussiveness, and a breadth of phrase that didn’t lose the first movement its shape or continuity while distilling much characterisation along the way, encapsulated in a cadenza that mused as much as it trod the boards. The middle movement enjoyed a charming solo flute and other distinctive winds to conjure a snowy landscape, Yun suggesting that he is also a fine chamber colleague, then light-fingered in the filigree of the quicksilver central section, oboe matching flute in the reprise, the whole rounded by a scintillating, crisply articulated Finale, the orchestra rampant and taking the romantic lead to which Yun responded musically rather than egotistically. The ending was widescreen and coruscating to complete a performance that ultimately was a notable team-effort. As an encore, Yun beguiled further with one of Brahms’s Opus 39 Waltzes, No.15. Judging from a brief interview with him, Canadian-born Yun, Beijing- and Juilliard-trained, was a last-minute replacement for I know not who (which probably explains the Rachmaninov) flying in from New York if delayed by the bad weather that hit the States and missing a rehearsal: it didn’t show.

Part two opened with Outi Tarkiainen’s (English-titled) Day Night Day, atmospheric in its effects, the concert completed by Lutosławski’s Third Symphony, a masterpiece for Chicago and Solti, a half-hour-plus work bookended by an arresting gesture, music that accrues intensity and complexity (sometimes with notated freedom and traffic-cop directions from the conductor) until it is fully-fledged as a dynamic symphonic development of energy and power, as well as being very expressive, that will, following much gripping incident, dramatically collapse (brought down by torrents of brass), only to rebuild, Bruckner-like, to a resounding, wholly satisfying, conclusion. FRSO & Søndergård swallowed the score whole, mighty in its significance.