“After intermission, the acclaimed American pianist Garrick Ohlsson took the stage to perform Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

Ohlsson is known for his fine technique and huge hands, which allow him to tackle passages that challenge other pianists. He could make the piano thunder in passages such as the grandiose openings of the first and third movements. He made it sparkle in effortless performances of rapid passages that decorate melodies in the orchestra.
But what was most striking about his performance was the sensitivity and style he brought to the work’s softer passages, to its melodies and to the elaborate ornamentations that accompany themes in the orchestra. In the first movement, he brought a sense of vulnerability, without ever losing the rhythmic pulse, to quiet melodic passages that expressed the work’s yearning romanticism.

In the last movement, he brought style and simmering heat to the famous second theme. And sensitive as he may have been to the work’s inward moments, he could draw a huge tone from the piano. Orchestra and soloists combined for a stirring account of the fortissimo concluding anthem, which like its counterpart at the end of the Piano Concerto No. 3, is a touchstone for admirers of Rachmaninoff’s music.

Standing ovations come pretty cheap these days, but this one was deserved. Ohlsson responded with two encores, a sensitive, probing performance of Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9, no. 2, and a deft, witty account of Chopin’s Minute Waltz.”

South Florida Classical Review