“Not every measure of Busoni’s epic, rarely heard Piano Concerto will linger in the mind, but the performance as a whole given by pianist Garrick Ohlsson was one of those musical experiences that will go down on everyone’s permanent mental record. Few pianists on Earth have the desire, talent, and sheer fortitude to perform the Busoni, a titanic, grandly virtuosic work from 1904…

“Opening with a brass fanfare, Ohlsson entered right away with an impressive and ostentatious piano solo, followed by grandiose chords echoed by the orchestra. The work’s slower melancholy passages were punctuated by wickedly fast piano scales, as Ohlsson’s fingers glided to and from each end of the piano. The piano was executed so quickly that the notes blended together into a massive…

“Ohlsson beautifully acknowledged the second movement’s lyricism and, in the bravura final movement, gave stature to the music without overselling it.” The Inquirer “Saturday’s soloist was Garrick Ohlsson. He attacked the score’s towering technical demands with unflappable aplomb and invested his dazzling digital display with structural integrity and melting lyricism…

“An encyclopedic knowledge of the piano repertoire probably helps. Over his decades-long career, Ohlsson has made his name foremost as an interpreter of Chopin (to date, he’s the only American to win the gold medal at Warsaw’s International Chopin Piano Competition), but his repertoire spans the Classical period to the present day, with some unusual highlights, such as Busoni’s…

Following “Tao,” the orchestra was joined by the brilliant pianist Garrick Ohlsson for Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, a vigorous, crisp and clear performance without a trace of Romantic excess. New York Times “The wonderful American pianist Garrick Ohlsson was the soloist for the Rachmaninov, a big bear of a man with a Horowitz-like heft to his playing. He had an…