Chi, without a doubt, deserved all the appreciation. For 35 minutes, the award-winning Canadian soloist kept the crowd riveted during her passionate performance of Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano Concert No. 2 in C Minor, along with the combined orchestra of 80 musicians.
The difficult piece required Chi to deliver delicate melodies, interspersed with bursts of muscular chording. The pianist managed to pull off both extremes with great sensitivity to the composer’s musical mood swings. Her performance was a marvel of precision and artistry, eliciting a brilliant spectrum of emotive sounds from her instrument…
All of the musicians, led by RDSO music director Claude Lapalme, pulled together beautifully to create a stirring listening experience — which well merited the second of the night’s standing ovations.
Red Deer Advocate | May 1, 2014