Washington Classical Review

Jorge Federico Osorio performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Carlos Miguel Prieto and the National Symphony Orchestra Thursday night at the Kennedy Center. Photo: Mauricio Castro

Carlos Miguel Prieto returned to the podium of the National Symphony Orchestra Thursday night, for the first time since his debut in 2018. The Mexican-born conductor, who began his tenure as music director of the North Carolina Symphony last season, led a pleasing program in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, featuring some old favorites introduced by something new.

Gabriela Ortiz premiered her orchestral work Téenek – Invenciones de Territorio in 2017, with Gustavo Dudamel leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Born in Mexico City in 1964, Ortiz grew up playing folk music with her parents, who were performers, before attending conservatory in Europe. She continued to show both elements of her background in this piece, named for an indigenous language in Mexico, with musical styles seeming to cross boundaries from one “territory” to another.

Prieto, with his tall frame and long arms, swept the NSO confidently through the work’s stylistic shifts. The opening section evoked mechanical sounds, like a clock ticking, followed by a soaring slow tune in the violas and cellos. A burgeoning percussion section provided rhythm-heavy backing reminiscent of Mexican popular music in some parts, and wah-wah trombone and trumpet licks added a hint of jazz. The piece changed moods often enough to keep the ear diverted, but in the end one felt left without much to remember.

Pianist Jorge Federico Osorio, in his belated NSO debut at age 73, engineered the high point of the evening with a judiciously considered, delicately rendered turn as soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Prieto set a pensive tempo in the first movement, marked Allegro con brio, which Osorio maintained for the most part. The pianist used a velvety touch at the keyboard, including remarkably fluid trills, to make urbane musical statements of the first movement’s themes.

The technical details were not always perfect, but a few minor slips here and there, easily covered, did not detract from the overall elegance of the soloist’s musicianship. Even Beethoven’s standard cadenza, in the coda of the first movement, sounded less flashy than carefully phrased, particularly the gently paced secondary theme. Only in the extended passages in sixteenth notes did Osorio tend to rush just slightly, a momentary break in composure.

Not surprisingly, this thoughtful approach paid the greatest dividends in the tranquil slow movement. Osorio, with a melting legato tone, sang in dialogue with the many woodwind solos in the orchestra behind him, with particularly fine playing from assistant principal flutist Leah Arsenault Barrick. Most importantly, like the good chamber musician he is, Osorio truly accompanied his orchestral colleagues when they had the leading lines.

The NSO and Osorio settled on an active tempo for the closing Rondo, with precisely calibrated runs throughout and an exciting final section, paced even faster. To bring the audience back down to earth, the Mexican-born pianist offered a meditative encore, the Sarabande from Bach’s Keyboard Partita No. 1. With just a hint of the sustaining pedal and a feather-light touch, Osorio invited the listener to lean in and concentrate on each beautifully shaped phrase.

After intermission Prieto conducted the orchestra in Rachmaninoff’s orchestral suite Symphonic Dances. The first movement crackled with energy in its faster opening section, giving way to the slower music for interlaced woodwinds, including a refined alto saxophone solo from Adam McCord, one of the surprising moments in this often bustling score.

Pealing brass fanfares opened the second movement and then periodically electrified it, between the strings’ nocturnal waltz. It was at this point that the performance lost some of its energy, not because of any technical fault in the playing but because the musical direction felt plain and unvaried. The greater energy of the third movement mitigated this disappointment somewhat, with the musical conflict between the Dies Irae chant, one of Rachmaninoff’s favorite themes, and a life-centered theme from his own All-Night Vigil.

The program will be repeated 11:30 a.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday. kennedy-center.org