But we always go hoping to hear music afresh, especially from a particularly insightful performer. The best of Sham\u2019s playing in the competition, notably his lively, personable account of the Mendelssohn G minor Concerto and his noble Brahms B-flat major, prompted hopes for Wednesday\u2019s sold-out recital. (A Thursday repeat was also sold out.)<\/p>\n
Boyishly personable, Sham in brief comments explained the program\u2019s linking baroque and romantic musical manners. He opened with the original piano version of Grieg\u2019s Holberg Suite, justly beloved in the composer\u2019s subsequent orchestration. Its five movements are loosely modeled on dance-based baroque keyboard suites.<\/p>\n
News Roundups<\/p>\n
By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t help thinking how much better this music sounds in orchestral guise. And Sham sometimes made it more muscular, less dancelike, than it wanted to be.<\/p>\n That he\u2019s a well-bred musician, with technique to do anything he wants, was never in doubt. If you fancy torrents of notes and booming chords, you may well have thrilled to Ferruccio Busoni\u2019s Variations on Chopin\u2019s Prelude in C minor (the earlier composer\u2019s Op. 28, No. 20). It\u2019s a virtuoso showpiece, with poetic moments as well \u2014 an alternative to big variation sets by Brahms and Rachmaninoff \u2014 and Sham played it to the hilt. But am I in a rush to hear it again? Well \u2026<\/p>\n Busoni, a virtuoso pianist and composer who lived from 1866 to 1924, also laid his heavy hand on the D minor Chaconne from Bach\u2019s unaccompanied Violin Partita No. 2. This may be Busoni\u2019s best-known arrangement, and again Sham delivered the imposing goods with conviction.<\/p>\n There was yet more Busoni: the composer\u2019s arrangement of six of Brahms\u2019 Eleven Chorale Preludes for organ. Having played the Brahms originals a number of times in my years as an organist, I was wary.<\/p>\n Even as they sometimes look over their shoulders at baroque precursors, these compact preludes \u2014 collected as Brahms\u2019 last opus \u2014 come from the same world as his exquisite late piano pieces. And the piano allows bringing out inner voices that can\u2019t be emphasized on the organ.<\/p>\n By Brahmsian standards, the prelude on the hymn we know as \u201cO sacred head, sore wounded\u201d got too aggressive, as did the chorale phrases of the final \u201cO world I must leave you.\u201d But Sham phrased sensitively throughout.<\/p>\n Enthusiastic ovations from the audience prompted two encores: Busoni\u2019s arrangement of Bach\u2019s \u201cJesu, joy of man\u2019s desiring\u201d and one of the Mendelssohn Songs Without Words.<\/p>\n The music was a suite from a ballet score by Joby Talbot.<\/p>\n The orchestra announced the change in a quippy Instagram video this week. \u201cNo more \u2018where are my glasses?\u2019 moments!\u201d the caption read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WORTH \u2014 We all, critics included, have our blind spots. But every music critic must sometimes review…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":272342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,1576,7371,7372,7260,358,141291,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-272341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-classical-music","10":"tag-fort-worth","11":"tag-fortworth","12":"tag-performing-arts","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-the-cliburn","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Weaver](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/UM7XVMATUZC55EMXO6CRY7YM54.jpg\")
<\/a>Review: Fort Worth Symphony adds Bruce Wood Dance for brilliant \u2018Alice in Wonderland\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GOML3IJ57ZCI3LUFE44JIMQ6T4.jpg\")
<\/a>Dallas Symphony changes drinks policy for classical concerts<\/a><\/p>\n