Music director Robert Spano, pianist Stephen Hough, and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra take a bow following Grieg’s ‘Piano Concerto in A minor.’ (credit: Karen Almond)
CONCERT REVIEW:
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
September 5, 6 &7, 2025, 2025
Bass Hall
Fort Worth, Texas – USA
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano, conductor; Stephen Hough, piano.
Jean SIBELIUS: Finlandia, Op. 26
Edvard GRIEG: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16
Johannes BRAHMS: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
Gregory Sullivan Isaacs | 8 SEP 2025
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra continues to reach ever higher levels of professionalism and its stature as a major orchestra. For those of us who remember its scrappy beginnings and witnessed its constant progress through a number of conductors, it has always been surprising. But last evening, under the no-nonsense musical directorship of Maestro Robert Spano, they delivered a superb performance of three masterworks that are more frequently distorted by conductors seeking to separate themselves from the ever-present herd of carefully coached aspirants. Here, it was the composers who dictated the flow of the music. Imagine that!
The program opened with the National Anthem, as do all of them. But even here, Spano played it as the march-like piece (albeit in ¾ time) that it really is.
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The opening of the actual program was a sensitive reading of Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia, Op. 26. Like some other symphonic works, only the reverent middle section is well known as a Christian hymn, “Be Still My Soul.” Little wonder. It is an eminently singable earworm.
According to Finland’s tourism website, “While Finland was still a Grand Duchy under Russia, performances within the empire had to take place under the covert title of “Impromptu.” [1]. After that unfortunate situation was resolved, Finland commissioned words from Veikko Antero Koskenniemi (1885 – 1962), so as to make it an unofficial national anthem (“Oi Suomi, katso, sinun päiväs koittaa”). In English: “Oh Finland, look, your day is coming”.
Spano opened the tone poem heroically, as befits the composer’s wish to depict the struggles of the Finnish people under the cruel Russian yoke. Brass fanfares are heard, inserted into the exciting and stirring orchestral passages. After all the turmoil, Spano’s especially lyrical reading of the famous tune fell on us like a spiritual balm.
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Next on the program was the well-known Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, composed by the 24-year-old Edvard Grieg in 1868. These days, it is rarely heard at major competitions, let alone concerts. This is the result of its reputation as being the first concerto learned by aspiring pianists (this writer included). But, because of Grieg’s showy and tuneful writing, the piece survives performances that are only a reasonable facsimile, at best.
However, not so here.
With the exceptional pianist Stephen Hough, paired with the sensitive conductor Robert Spano and the stellar Fort Worth Symphony, it was revelatory. According to intermission chitchat overheard, many commented that it shed its amateur reputation and asserted its status as an exceptional masterwork, worthy of such performances.
Stephen Hough performs Grieg’s ‘Piano Concerto in A minor’ with Robert Spano and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. (credit: Karen Almond)
The concert concluded with Johannes Brahms’ autumnal masterpiece, Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98. Many musicologists name this work as a sample of the perfection of the symphonic form. Every note is there for a reasonably determined function, which it perfectly serves. Its form is also definitive, yet it plays as if it were spontaneous. The symphony is written for a large, but standard, orchestra, except for the curious addition of a triangle in the third movement, which adds some bling (even though it was tentatively played on Friday).
There is so much that I could say about the extraordinary details that Spano both observed and brought to our attention on Friday evening that this review of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony could go on for even more erudite wanderings. But suffice it to say that even for someone such as this commentator, who knows the work intimately and has conducted it as well, there were so many revelatory moments that I was sent back to the score when I arrived home. ■
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra returns to Bass Hall September 19-21 for a concert entitled “Symphonic Stories: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” featuring music of Mozart and Talbot. fwsymphony.org
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About the author:
Gregory Sullivan Isaacs is a Dallas-based composer, conductor, and journalist. He is also a coach and teacher with a private studio.
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This entry was posted in Symphony & Opera and tagged Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano, Stephen Hough on September 8, 2025 by Gregory Sullivan Isaacs.RECENT POSTS