Despite the ever-present threat of rain, the NY Phil opened their annual series of free park concerts last night on the Great Lawn in Central Park. It was actually two concerts in one: the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra played on the first half of the concert under their music director Long Yu, purportedly in celebration of the Expo 2010 happening right now in Shanghai. After opening with Wagner's Tannhauser overture, baritone Changyong Liao and soprano Ying Huang sang arias by Rossini, Gounod and Mozart, then combined forces on Guang Zhao's somewhat saccharine Ode to the Expo. To finish, piano superstar Lang Lang banged out Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, in a performance that was at turns lyrical and electric. He then played a Chinese folk melody as an encore, selected by the audience via text message over a Chopin polonaise. (Those same audience members later got a txt message back, inviting them to pre-order Lang's new CD "Live in Vienna" or join his Facebook fan page.)
The Phil (under guest conductor Andrey Boreyko) played mostly chestnuts on the 2nd half: Tchiakovsky's Eugene Onegin, Bernstein's West Side Story dances, and Bolero. And then, as if on cue, the rain started to drizzle, preempting the planned fireworks.
Boreyko and the Phil are back on the Great Lawn tonight with a mostly-Russian program that features Branford Marsalis playing a pair of rare saxophone concertos. As of 6:30, the concert appears to still be on, though I'd bring the umbrella just in case. More pics at the Flickr page.
