Leonard Bernstein had a number of students, but in this year of his centenary, there may not be many of them left unknown. However, Yutaka Sado is evidently one of them, at least in this country. His performance with the NSO on Thursday night at the Kennedy Center was his debut not only with the orchestra — even though he was an assistant to Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa, and has a thriving career in Europe and Asia — but in the United States. This is all the more striking since the performance revealed him to be a conductor of great assurance and showmanship — certainly as good or better than many others with higher profiles. But the orchestra lacked the hairpin precision to do full justice to his concept, so that at moments toward the end, the Tchaikovsky seemed to flag.

Source: Washington Post January 12, 2018 04:41 UTC