REVIEW: Hartford Symphony Orchestra, "Brahms’ Third"

Bushnell, Belding Theater, Hartford, CT

www.hartfordsymphony.org

April 10-12, 2026

by Michael J. Moran

For the seventh weekend in its 2025-26 Masterworks series, HSO Music Director Carolyn Kuan led the orchestra in four pieces by three composers, including two HSO premieres, one featuring the composer as soloist.

The concert opened with the first HSO premiere, the rarely heard 1831 concert overture inspired by French composer Hector Berlioz’s take on Shakespeare’s tragedy, “King Lear.” In an engaging spoken introduction, Kuan asked sections of the HSO to play segments of the piece, with themes depicting Lear, his three daughters, and his descent into madness. The full orchestra gave a fiery version of this rousing mini-drama.

Photo by Jim Henkel

The second HSO premiere was Brazilian-born composer Clarice Assad’s colorful 2024 “Flow, Suite for Piano and Orchestra.” Commissioned by the Albany Symphony for the bicentennial of the Erie Canal between Albany and Syracuse, New York, its three short movements depict “the flow of ideas” across time and space, Assad comments in a program note. She proved a virtuosic pianist, also playing a small drum in the mercurial “River Tide,” relaxed and sensitive in the jazzy “Last Song,” and dazzling in the energetic “Rhapsodic Dances” finale. Kuan and the orchestra were supportive accompanists. The well-filled house gave Assad a standing ovation.

Next came a vibrant performance of Johannes Brahms’ 1883 third and shortest symphony. An alternately energetic and reflective “Allegro con brio,” including the often-omitted repeat, was followed by a flowing “Andante” that surged forward to a magical hushed ending, an exquisitely melancholy “Poco allegretto,” and a robust closing “Allegro,” fading to a quiet close. Standing out among the many players who took bows for their work in solo passages was HSO principal oboe Erik Andrusyak, who also excelled in the Berlioz.

As a sort of “orchestral encore,” Kuan spoke again to introduce “the fun-loving, beer-drinking side” of Brahms with a rip-roaring rendition of his popular 1869 “Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G minor,” based on a folk-like melody for piano four hands, arranged for orchestra by conductor Albert Parlow, which ended the program on a festive note. 

The HSO’s next Masterworks program (May 8-10) will feature Kuan leading music by Clyne and Mendelssohn, with HSO principal clarinet Sangwon Lee as soloist in Mozart’s clarinet concerto.