Pines of Rome

Pianist Gustavo Romero has reason to smile following his exciting performance of Concerto No. 2 by Brahms

Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra. Mahidol Salaya Campus. Nakompathom, Thailand. November 24, 2012. It didn't take long for principal conductor Claude Villaret to get the TPO into shape for the second concert pair of its 2012-13 season. The final work performed at this concert, Ottorino Respighi's "Pines of Rome," showed this fine orchestra at its exciting best. Debussy's "La Mer" is a dreary piece of impressionist orchestration and it's relationship to the sea is only in the listener's imagination, if at all. I suppose the TPO did as well with this work as can be expected, but its classification as a "masterpiece" did little to hold my attention. Not so, though, with America pianist Gustavo Romero's thoroughly convincing performance of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2. Romero had the requisite technique to give this towering work a full-bodied, passionate reading. Gone was any pretense of classicism; in Romero's hands, this great concerto was as romantic as Rachmaninoff, an interpretive approach that I like, as did the cheering audience.