Grieg's Piano Concerto is one of those works that never fails to please an audience.
Along with Tchaikovsky's B flat minor Concerto and Rachmaninoff's Second and Third Concertos, the Grieg is definitely a crowd pleaser. And it's also a perfect vehicle for a young pianist to debut with an orchestra.
That's the case with Israeli-born Shai Wosner. He'll make his first appearance with the Utah Symphony this weekend.
"It's a work that makes everybody happy," Wosner said in a phone interview from his home in New York.
But it's not only the audience who enjoys it. The concerto also has a lot to offer pianists.
"There is something rewarding about it," Wosner said. "The textures are delicious to the ear, the piano writing is dramatic, and the piano blends very well with the orchestra."
While the Grieg concerto is without question in the classical top 10, Wosner noted that it's not played as frequently as one would expect.
"I've only played it once or twice so far," he said. "It used to be played much more often, but it's not played as often as the Tchaikovsky or any of the Rachmaninoff concertos. I think people just think it's done more often because they know it so well."
The Grieg falls squarely into Wosner's concerto repertoire. "The majority of what I do is romantic. Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms are the composers I play most frequently."
But the 31-year-old pianist is also interested in contemporary music. He also has works by Gyorgy Ligeti, Per Norgaard and Bright Sheng in his repertoire. "The Ligeti concerto is one of my favorites," he said. "It's a very successful piece and I believe it will stay in the repertoire because it is so great."
Recently, Wosner commissioned Michael Hersch to write a concerto for him. Wosner will premiere Hersch's Chamber Concerto for Piano and Thirteen Instruments next year, and there also are some tentative plans to record it.
Having the opportunity of playing chamber music is important to Wosner. "It's indispensable," he said. "It teaches you to hear what the other players are doing. Being able to listen is so important, not only in chamber music but also in recitals and concerto performances."
And while Wosner loves doing recitals, he said it's "scary" because the pianist is exposed.
"You have no one to blame for a bad performance but yourself — although you can blame the piano," he joked. "My heart goes out to violinists. There is no way they can blame a bad performance on their instrument. How can you blame a $5 million violin for sounding bad? You can't."
Wosner began studying the piano in his native Israel. He continued his musical education at Juilliard, where he studied with Emanuel Ax. "He was the reason I came to this country," he said. Wosner calls his time with Ax "inspirational. He is absolutely amazing and a terrific person, and one of the most generous people I have ever met."
There will be one other work on this weekend's program, Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. German conductor Stefan Sanderling, currently music director of the Florida Orchestra and principal conductor of the Toledo Symphony, will be on the podium.
If you go ...
What: Shai Wosner, piano, Utah Symphony, Stefan Sanderling, conductor
Where: Abravanel Hall, 123 S. West Temple
When: Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.
How much: $12-$48
Phone: 355-2787 or 888-451-2787
Web: utahsymphony.org
Also: Grieg's Piano Concerto on the Utah Symphony's Music Exposed series, Abravanel Hall, Thursday, 7 p.m., $10-$35
E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com