Seattle Symphony incoming music director Xian Zhang shows her prowess

Concert review

With just a few gestures, Xian Zhang began conjuring a cosmos.

Returning to Benaroya Hall for her first full program since being named Seattle Symphony’s incoming music director, Zhang drew the nearly sold-out concert hall Thursday night into her orbit with her focused, magnetic conducting.

Her tenure officially begins in September, but her performance with the Symphony on Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” gave an early glimpse of what’s to come. Even in front of the expanded forces crowding the stage — including a large screen overhead showing HD images and footage from NASA expeditions — Zhang maintained a riveting presence on the podium. Her kinetic precision and clarity of vision inspired the orchestra to respond in kind. (Performances continue Saturday and Sunday.)

Zhang’s highly energetic conducting style is keenly attuned to the moment, whether unleashing the explosively dissonant climaxes suited to Mars as “Bringer of War” or underlining the ominous incantations depicting Uranus as “the Magician.” She was equally attentive to the variety of atmospheres constituting Holst’s canvas, leaning into the post-Romantic lushness of “Venus, the Bringer of Peace” while also summoning an almost Mendelssohnian fleetness of touch for Holst’s scherzo-ish portrait of Mercury.

There was narrative sweep as well as specificity. Zhang shaped the broader arc of each movement with a lucid sense of pacing and well-judged contrasts, showing particular finesse in adjusting dynamics and molding texture. Later, as audience members exited the hall, some were overheard comparing notes — as if casting votes for favorite scenes in a film.

The closing movement, “Neptune, the Mystic,” proved especially striking, as Holst’s spectral music seemed to dissolve into another realm altogether. The sense of mystery was enhanced by the decision to place the upper voices of the Seattle Symphony Chorale backstage rather than, as is often the case, high on the balconies at the back of the hall. Muffled by closed stage doors, their siren calls floated ethereally into the distance — like Rhinemaidens left to wander in cosmic depths. 

“The Planets” contains some of the most familiar pages in the orchestral repertoire, but Zhang took nothing for granted. Apart from a few instances of slack ensemble attack, the players seemed engaged in a deeply collaborative effort, responding with sustained concentration. Standout moments from principal cellist Efe Baltacıgil, Mark Robbins on horn and the entire wind section were just some of the many notable contributions in a performance marked by expressive detail across Seattle Symphony’s ranks.

Featuring close-ups of planetary surfaces, the NASA footage was spectacular on its own terms but seemed too literal in its attempt to accompany Holst’s myth-centered tone poem. Zhang’s skill at storytelling through the score itself more than sufficed, drawing the audience into the musical narrative without the need for visual aid. 

A similar sense of connection electrified the first half of the program, which presented the charismatic young saxophonist Steven Banks in his Seattle Symphony debut. Banks was the soloist in the new concerto “Diaspora” by Los Angeles-based Billy Childs, a composer and pianist who effortlessly bridges the jazz and classical worlds. 

Composed in 2022, “Diaspora” traces a journey — “as sifted through the prism of my own experience as a Black man in America,” notes the composer — from ancestral memory through reflection on the trauma of enslavement to a portrayal of hope renewed. Childs transforms the conventional three-movement concerto format into a gripping drama in three acts.

Banks brought extraordinary presence and variety to the solo part, moving between soprano and alto saxophones as if an actor playing multiple roles. The first movement, anchored by Michael Werner’s marimba textures, evoked an idyllic lost Eden in Africa. But with a harrowing solo lament, Banks led the orchestra into the jagged, violent music depicting the Middle Passage. 

A gospel-tinged duet between Banks and guest pianist Li-Tan Hsu opened a space of intimacy and grace, leading to an uplifting, radiant finale — closing with an astonishing exclamation mark at the upper limits of Banks’ soprano instrument. As an encore he offered a deeply personal rendition of Albert Hay Malotte’s “The Lord’s Prayer,” unaccompanied and shaped with reverence.

Guiding “Diaspora” with assurance and dramatic flair, Zhang displayed generosity in yielding the spotlight to Banks — during a lengthy cadenza, she simply stood on the podium, listening with rapt attention. 

Her decision to program the piece is in keeping with the conductor’s commitment to living composers and broadening perspectives to include voices underrepresented by the conventional repertoire.

Seattle Symphony on Thursday also announced its 2025-26 season — the first with Zhang as music director. While continuing her responsibilities as music director of the New Jersey Symphony, she will return to Benaroya Hall to lead 10 programs in the coming season.

I was hoping to see a brand-new initiative as her signature along the lines of the “[untitled]” series that made such a splash when Conductor Emeritus Ludovic Morlot began his tenure. Perhaps something along those lines will be forthcoming. Promisingly, Zhang will conduct new works by six contemporary composers. While her lineup of core repertoire is less adventurous — Rachmaninov, an all-Gershwin program and a rather staid selection for the all-French program, for example — this will likely improve when Zhang is able to commit more attention to her new post here.