Weiss to perform Brahms with LV Philharmonic

Marilyn LaRocque

Friday, Feb. 21, 2003 | 8:52 a.m.

Pianist Orion Weiss vaulted to musical prominence when he substituted for Andre Watts with the Baltimore Symphony on less than 24 hours' notice to play the Shostakovich "Piano Concerto No. 2." He joins the Las Vegas Philharmonic on Saturday to perform Johannes Brahms' "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, No. 1, in D Minor."

The concert, titled "Stars on the Rise," begins at 8 p.m. at Artemus Ham Hall at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with Philharmonic Music Director Harold Weller conducting.

Now 20, Weiss was just 17 when his "big break" happened. "One of my teachers, Sergei Babayan, got a call from the Baltimore Symphony," Weiss said. "I had just played the Shostakovich for him in a lesson about a month earlier. If I had thought about the pressure I was under, I wouldn't have been able to get through it. I just went and did the best job I could. It was fun but a lot of work."

In October 2001 Weiss performed at one of the Las Vegas Philharmonic's "Soiree" series recitals. His playing electrified the audience, which encouraged Weller to invite him to play with the full orchestra.

"Orion had been playing the Schumann concerto a lot and was bored and wanted to give it a rest," Weller recalled. "He wanted to do something he'd never done before, so we chose the Brahms.

"Brahms was only 21 when he began working on the concerto; so he, too, was a rising star. He was infatuated with Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann's wife. Brahms fully intended the work to be his first symphony; but Clara, an outstanding pianist, told him to make it a piano concerto. She consulted with Brahms on the entire composition."

Weller described the Brahms work as "a wonderfully romantic piece, with very dramatic moments, beautifully contoured melodies ... the quintessential romantic concerto."

He added, "It's very stimulating for the orchestra and conductor to be working with a brilliant young pianist. Although it's wonderful to play with an super-talented veteran artist, they've played the same body of work for years, and it can become routine. Youth carries a nonjaded freshness. A youthful artist provides a different perspective, but you find maturity in youth as well ..."

Weiss began playing piano at age three with the Suzuki system.

"My mother would practice with me, go to all my lessons and take notes on what I needed to do to improve," Weiss reported. "She was involved with all steps of the process. It was part of the Suzuki 'three-legged stool' approach -- parent, teacher and student.

"When I was about 12 or 13, people started saying I was talented. It seemed like a career in music would be a lot more fun than carrying a briefcase around. Over the last couple of years I've had a whole bunch of lucky breaks. I'm still in shock that it might work out."

Weiss specifically targeted Juilliard for his advanced music education because Emmanuel Ax teaches at the school.

"I met him during my sophmore year at high school in Cleveland and called him after that," Weiss said. "Besides being a warm, supportive and loving person, he's one of the greatest musicians ever, so brilliant in his music making, that I hope it rubs off."

How Weiss approaches learning a new work depends on the music.

"I imagine it in my head," he said. "I don't listen to recordings. That would impede my own creative process. I practice the whole thing because if I were to do one movement at a time, I would never think one was really ready so I could move on.

"I'm really excited about the Brahms. It's one of my most favorite pieces in the world. I listened to it as I was growing up. I feel really in touch with the music."

Weiss' career is already studded with awards and accolades -- the Gina Bachauer Scholarship, the Mieczslaw Munz Scholarship, both at Juilliard; the Avery Fischer Career Grant, which gives a cash award and the opportunity to perform on the A&E cable network and the Gilmore Young Artist Award.

Weiss is a member of the Chamber Music Society Two program at Lincoln Center in New York. His busy concert and recital schedule takes him from coast to coast.

His advice to aspiring young musicians?

"If you love it, go for it ... and it's fun."

Continuing the "youth" emphasis of the concert, Weller has chosen Mozart's "Symphony #25 in G-minor, K. 183," written when the composer was only 17. "Symphonic Metamorphosis -- of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber" by Paul Hindemith completes the program.