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Teen pianist adds to orchestra's lustre (March 10, 2003) Review by Wynne Delacoma, Classical Music Critic, Chicago Sun-Times Lukas Vondracek, a 16-year-old Czech pianist with a teenager's gangly stride, a choirboy's face and a would-be hipster's black attire, tore into Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 1 like a mature pianist possessed. Rather than approaching the young Prokofiev's frankly splashy concerto as a young pianist's simple-minded, virtuosic free-for-all, he deployed his stunning technical resources with discipline and elan. No one in Symphony Center's large audience who heard Vondracek perform this piece last spring with the Lake Forest Symphony would have been surprised at the steely power of his lyrical line. Evenly shaded and always expressive, it was always prominent, even when the orchestra was in full cry and the melody itself was buried in a blizzard of racing chords and scales. For the rest of us, Vondracek's performance was one of those most happy concert experiences, an encounter with a young talent on the verge of a stellar career. His gorgeously tossed-off encore, a flamboyant arrangement of the Pas de Deux from Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker,'' was fancy icing on an already succulent cake. |
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