“Ohlsson used his pianistic soft power — a commanding technical arsenal deployed with judicious restraint — in the service of Beethoven’s penchant for insistence, pushing the first movement’s boil of trills and passagework to the foreground, making the slow movement’s pleas hushed and voluble by turn. By the rambunctious finale, ensemble and soloist were on the same quirky page,…

“ … the distinguished pianist Garrick Ohlsson joined the Takács Quartet for a concert of works by Elgar and the little-known American Amy Beach, 10 years his junior. Her Five Improvisations for piano proved skilful inventions, but her F sharp minor Piano Quintet (1907) came as a magnificent surprise: a superbly crafted three movements, whose adagio espressivo went beyond craft into real…

“Rounding out the first half of the performance, Pianist Garrick Ohlsson returned to Heinz Hall to complete this season’s cycle of Rachmaninoff concertos with the Concerto No. 4 in G minor. Soloist and orchestra handed off melodies and gestures flawlessly, their interplay a pleasure to experience. Mr. Ohlsson’s playing is supremely polished, and he’s able to coax one of the largest…

Garrick Ohlsson is a pianist of vast vocabulary. He has a broader repertoire than most in his upper-echelon crowd, but he also specializes in the art of the recital, smartly focused on a single composer. In 2010, he brought to a Lobero recital his acknowledged mastery of Chopin (he was the only American to win the Chopin Competition, in 1970). Last Saturday, the Ohlsson program was all-Brahms,…