Mozart with Conrad Tao

I was so excited for last night's Utah Symphony concert because it featured a mostly Mozart program with audience favorite Conrad Tao as both conductor and soloist.  The orchestra began with Nuages by Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith.  I was not familiar with this piece but I really liked it because it is very otherworldly and mysterious with different harmonies that overlap like the titular clouds passing each other across the sky.  Next came Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20.  I love all of Mozart's music but this piece is one of my favorites (it is rumored to be one of the composer's favorites as well).  The second movement, especially, is absolutely beautiful (it is featured in the end credits of the movie Amadeus which is what introduced me to Mozart) with a melody played by the solo piano that is so tender and romantic.  I also love the final movement because it is moody and tempestuous as the solo piano plays dissonant chords that alternate with themes played by the woodwinds.  It was so cool to watch Tao conduct the orchestra with one hand while playing with the other just like Mozart would have done back in the day!  He is incredibly expressive and energetic (he would leap off the bench at times and his fingers flew up and down the keyboard) but also controlled.  The crowd sitting around me, including lots of young people, was almost giddy in their appreciation for his performance (it was more befitting a rock star than a classical pianist) and he rewarded us with an encore featuring a cool arrangement of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."  After the intermission, the concert concluded with Mozart's Symphony No. 40.  I like this because, unlike much of Mozart's earlier work, it is dark, intense, and dramatic.  The first movement is especially restless with the famous theme played by the violins accompanied by the syncopated violas, the third movement is almost sinister with a minuet filled with tension created by cross-rhythms, and the final movement returns to the restless energy of the first but it is even more turbulent because of the battle between the lower strings and bassoons and the violins.  I thoroughly enjoyed this concert (it was one of my most anticipated concerts of the 2026-2027 season and it did not disappoint) and I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) for tonight's performance of the same program.