Lang Lang opened a series of sold-out performances with the SF Symphony on Wednesday night. The pianist headlined a concert at Davies Symphony Hall, which also included the US premiere of The Flight of Icarus by John Pickard and a Haydn symphony.

Lang Lang is pianist with a vast appeal crossing over to the general audience, not just the classical arena: his official web site biography mentions his playing on Jay Leno's show before his playing at Carnegie Hall. So it came as little surprise that he came on-stage wearing a black velvet tuxedo which looked really cool and as comfortable as pajamas.

He jumped into Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major. Lang Lang is a delight to observe: his face rapturously follows the music, expressing all the musical emotions the same way one can read feelings on the face of a child, a not-so-inept comparison considering Lang Lang is only 23 years old and not so long ago was still considered a child prodigy.

Through his body language immersed in the music, one could literally divine each note being thought first in Lang Lang's brain, then traveling down his shoulders and arms to his fingers, then being played out to the eventual surprise on his face that the note was indeed perfect. Lang Lang was at his best in the long cadenza of the second movement which he played at a deliberate pace, as a very moving elegy. Lang Lang extricated amazing texture from his Steinway, getting his arpeggios to sound like a harp, or his left hand like a pizzicato'ed cello. In the 3rd movement, one felt that his intense style was taking the better of him, with some intempestive accentuation (and nagging foot stomping) . The mannerisms also take their toll on the rhythmic accuracy, with conductor Mark Wigglesworth struggling to stay in sync with the soloist's wandering beat.

Lang Lang thanked the crowd's standing ovation by playing a cute little encore, which fitted his romantic style perfectly. The Chinese piece titled "Moonlight Reflecting on the Lake," closed a loop in musical influences: it sounded a lot like Debussy, his own Moonlight from the Suite Bergamasque in particular, and Debussy himself was influenced by Asian musics which were being discovered in Europe at the turn into the 20th century.

While Lang Lang was the main attraction, the happy surprise was British conductor Mark Wigglesworth, who, unencumbered with dealing with a soloist, lead excellent renditions of the other two pieces on the program. The Flight of Icarus was a 20 minute piece going through different moods, from a percussive, Stravinsky-like atmosphere, to a fluid, melodic conclusion. The orchestra crackled and popped in the former, or ondulated in great waves in the latter, following to a "T" the diminutive, straight-as-a-soldier conductor. The piece turned challenging for the horn section's agility. Suffices to say that the repertoire does not include many tuba solos as the one in this piece, especially if you play it on a keyed C-tube.

Nevertheless, John Pickard had flown in from the U.K. to take a bow for the U.S. premiere of his piece, and told us, beaming: They played it beautifully when we caught up with him during intermission. He also defended the size of his orchestra as being nothing out of the ordinary, --there was no harp!--, even though we felt the smaller ensemble which performed the Beethoven concerto afterwards sounded feeble at first compared to his powerful and explosive orchestration.

Wigglesworth's take on the Haydn's Symphony No.99 was classic yet well executed, underscoring gracefully the wittiness of the score: the horns going "honk honk" in the last movement, or the fake ending which baited the upper balcony into applause. That he and the orchestra got two rounds of applause was rightfully deserved.

Concert information here for the "Lang Lang plays Beethoven" series. Some tickets might be turned back, even though all performances are sold-out. Click here for the Symphony's calendar of events.