October 1, 2016 It was a struggle for Hercules, slaying the Lernaean Hydra. To begin with, the fearsome fanged monster had toxically bad breath, trouble enough with only one head, but the Hydra had nine of them. Or was it 50? Anyway, cut off one head, and two grew back. The job required a deft combination of sword and fire, and Hercules had to cheat by recruiting his nephew Iolaus to help.  But what if Hercules’ strength were so overwhelming that he could have slain the Hydra with one swift swat from yesterday’s edition of the Peloponnese Times, while young Iolaus relaxed on a convenient rock and recorded the event on his iPhone? Which brings us to Garrick Ohlsson’s seemingly effortless performance in Johannes Brahms’s heroic Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat, with the San Antonio Symphony conducted by music director Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Sept. 30 in the Tobin Center. Many pianists would rank Brahms 2 as the most technically difficult piano concerto in the standard repertoire, certainly among those of the 19th century. The great pianist Alfred Brendel has called attention to the work’s “unsurpassable pianistic perversions.”  Its four movements spanning three-quarters of an hour demand enormous stamina. Its thundering chords in the first two movements require massive strength, but the finale’s delicate filigree calls for lightness and fluidity. And for all that, the piano part has to be fully integrated with the orchestral texture rather than riding above it, as in most concertos.  Mr. Ohlsson’s immense power and technical wizardry brought those “pianistic perversions” in the first two movements to their knees. He sailed through passages that are high hurdles for other pianists. The result was a clearer line, a greater lyricism, than we are accustomed to hearing. Challenging runs flowed freely and with grace. The seeming ease was a mixed blessing, however, mitigating the sense of struggle that often contributes to this concerto’s effectiveness. Too, Mr. Ohlsson aptly maintained the piano’s proportionate place within the overall orchestral scheme, but one consequence (mainly in the first two movements) was a muting of color. He brought ample feeling to the poetic third movement, which also was distinguished by principal cello Ken Freudigman’s glorious solos. The finale benefited from Mr. Ohlsson’s amazing dexterity and firm, ringing tone.   Pianist and conductor were in compete accord — especially important in this concerto. The orchestra was in top form, with silken violins, precise ensemble, a burnished sound and a beautiful blend. (Perhaps contributing to the blend was Mr. Lang-Lessing’s seating chart, with mixed rows of woodwinds and brass.)  Mr. Ohlsson, who has recorded all of Frédéric Chopin’s piano music and who won the Chopin Piano competition in 1970, returned to that font for his encore, a stylistically ideal account of Chopin’s Waltz in C-sharp minor. After intermission came Felix Mendelssohn’s sunny Symphony No. 4 (Italian), in a fleet, buoyant, meticulous performance. Tempi were mostly on the fast side — breathtakingly so in the finale — but Mr. Lang-Lessing took an unusually slow pace in the andante, giving it a wonderful feeling of spacious serenity and helping to emphasize the woodwinds’ counterpoint against the strings’ melody early in the movement.  The concert closed with Gioachino Rossini’s overture to the opera William Tell. Mr. Freudigman had another radiant, supremely musical solo in the prelude, andthe orchestra’s new principal flute, Mark Teplitsky, shone in the storm. The percussion section  gave the familiar finale a strong shot of Paris Opéra flamboyance.  Mike Greenberg 

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Garrick Ohlsson

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A heroic labor, tamed

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San Antonio Symphony, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Garrick Ohlsson