Review: XIAN CONDUCTS BEETHOVEN 9 at Benaroya Hall

New Seattle Symphony music director Xian Zhang closed her extraordinarily successful inaugural season with a program coupling the very archetype of a traditional finale—Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, the “Choral”—with a performance of a decidedly non-traditional work, Steven Mackey’s RIOT for chorus, vocalist, and the composer himself on electric guitar, as the opening work.

It’s clear that during this momentous season Xian has cemented her already genial relationship with the orchestra into one of close, mutual understanding and trust in creating meaningful music together. The performance was transcendent in every way.

Before taking the reins in September 2025, Xian expressed her deeply felt commitment to bring new sounds to Seattle. She originally commissioned RIOT as music director of the New Jersey Symphony. Mackey, a Seattle Symphony Artist In Focus for the 2025/2026 season and a prime example of one of the current generation’s key composers, aspires to generate a musical language that crosses platforms while enhancing melody as an all-important focus. His Anemology: Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra was performed by Timothy McAllister and the Seattle Symphony in November 2025.

A rock guitarist who became involved in instrumental composition through the influence of the Downtown New York improv scene and the broader international avant-garde, Mackey’s music is engaging in its unexpected juxtapositions of styles.

“I want my music to be human and connected to the core motivations of music—to sing, to dance and to have transcendent experience,” says the GRAMMY-winning composer of works for chamber ensemble, orchestra, dance, and opera, who credits one single “psychedelic blue note” in Beethoven’s final String Quartet in F major, op.135 for opening his eyes and ears to the rock music elements of the classical genre.

The text for RIOT was penned by poet Tracy K. Smith, Mackey’s colleague at Princeton University who, Mackey has said, “knows how to make words sing.” Initially inspired by the death of George Floyd, Smith intended the piece as one that “foregrounds race and resilience,” with six texts that bring together the ideals of hope, commitment, and community. Mackey describes the work as “a RIOT of color and texture.

Mackey’s music is free spirited, inventive and lively, while also being profound and dramatically coherent. The piece displayed breadth and commitment to the meaning of the text, which was a very dark, somber commentary on the world situation...

Sometimes I feel
the Black in my heart
like a map

made of tar.

…Yet ending with undertones of hope. For in the end:

We live—

The performance featured mezzo-soprano and St. Louis native Alicia Olatuja as vocalist. Also known as a composer in her own right as well as an educator whose wide repertoire ranges from jazz to classical, Olatuja sang the work’s world premiere with the New Jersey Symphony led by Xian and was perfectly comfortable in her role. Her voice is a major one: lush, uniquely beautiful. She dominated the Benaroya stage whenever she was singing and portrayed the deeper significance of the text both in her sumptuous sound and her engaging eye movements.

Mackey’s contribution on guitar was heartfelt and played with great tenderness, though one would have liked to have heard more from him in this piece. Xian maintained extraordinary control over the difficult score, the massive forces of the huge orchestration, and the enormous Seattle Symphony Chorale, whose performance was stirring. The conductor’s beats were assured, crystal clear, and technically proficient.

Beethoven claimed that marrying music to poetry was too much of a challenge and that setting words to music caused him “more pain than pleasure,” especially in the writing of his only opera Fidelio, which was so frustrating for him that he vowed never to write another.

He stayed true to his word. Yet two decades later, having survived composing his Choral Fantasy and Missa Solemnis, he managed to write his “Choral” Symphony, but struggled with fitting the strophic text of Schiller's “Ode to Joy” into such a monumental instrumental form. 

Nonetheless, his Ninth Symphony was an overwhelming success at its premiere in 1824, greeted by cheers from the adoring crowd, and after 200+ years is considered by many the greatest symphonic masterpiece of all time.

Xian’s version of the piece mined its brilliance and popularity by exploiting all the finest possibilities of the orchestra teamed with a top-notch quartet of singers and a vigorous Seattle Symphony Chorale.

The conductor’s magnanimous gestures dominated the performance and brought to her rendition the enthusiasm, high level of energy, and absolute control the colossal work demands. She maintained a steady dramatic tension throughout the 1st movement, Allegro ma non troppo, un poco, driving the music forward with weight and intensity. In moments both aggressive and intimate, her beat remained consistent in its clarity and precision. In the lyrical sections, the orchestra responded to her expressivity with tender elegance. The subtle rallentando toward the end gave extra emphasis to the urgency of the Coda and the dynamism of the final, emphatic beat.  

Given Xian’s high energy approach, the Scherzo 2nd movement (Molto vivace/Presto) was as lively as expected. In her spirited dancing on the podium, she seemed about to levitate at times, but she also knew how to whip the orchestra into a frenzy when called for.

The 3rd movement, Adagio molto e cantabile, reflected the deep sensitivity, care and thoughtfulness that went into Xian’s interpretation, motioning on high with her expressive left hand at the most passionate moments and providing a gentle caress at the poignant ones. She sustained the flow throughout each variation, allowing the piece to sigh and breathe.

The Finale, which musicologist Charles Rosen described as a symphony within a symphony, was the crowning glory of the evening. Among the vocal soloists, soprano Toni Marie Palmertree stood out by virtue of her golden tones, especially her upper notes, supple and perfect for the demands of the vocal range and the text. Despite her role being understated, Jennifer Johnson Cano’s lavish mezzo sounded lovely. Tenor Issachah Savage, replacing the originally scheduled SeokJong Baek, impressed with the power and scope of his voice and negotiated the challenging tessitura admirably, though his acting gestures were a bit overdone in the context of the piece. Robert Pomakov was up to the challenge of the iconic bass role in the strength of his operatic voice, but the quality of the tone was harsh at times. The Seattle Symphony Chorale’s immense sound added much to the overall effect of grandeur.

Xian’s performance was a joyful representation of Schiller’s text, ending the rousing evening with an affirmation of much-needed hope for us all.

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