Williams’ Piano Concerto ‘closer to Schoenberg,’ says Ax, than ‘Star Wars’

Veteran pianist Emanuel Ax seems busier than ever these days. In addition to concertizing all over the world, as he has for more than 50 years, “Manny,” as he is affectionately known, is championing a new piano concerto written for him by legendary composer John Williams. The work will receive its Midwest premiere Aug. 1 at Ravinia Festival, under Ravinia Chief Conductor Marin Alsop and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with Ax as soloist. 

Chosen as Musical America’s 2026 Artist of the Year, Ax is busy off the concert stage as well, hosting a podcast series, produced by WQXR-FM in partnership with Carnegie Hall, called Classical Music Happy Hour, where Ax has informal conversations with musicians, composers, creative figures and well-known folks of various fields who love and play music.

“I’m excited about it,” Ax says. “I’ve got a couple of football players lined up for the next go-round. We did a bunch of [episodes] over the year, and now they’re releasing them one by one.”

Composer John Adams, who has written pieces for Ax, and longtime Ax chamber music partner and friend Yo-Yo Ma, have been early guests. Ax has even scored a very difficult interview to procure, pianist Yuja Wang. “I know Yuja fairly well, and she was nice enough to spend some time doing this, which is great. She’s an amazing personality and the most fabulous pianist.”

In addition to being a great pianist himself, Ax has always been a true connoisseur of other pianists. “I’m a pianophile. I love, I love the piano. And I love almost all pianists. I would find it hard to think of a pianist I don’t like, actually. I like piano playing, and most of what you hear these days is so great.”

As a young music student attending Juilliard, where he has since taught for decades, Ax heard all the great pianists who came through New York, which remains his home base. Ax savored every one of them, even having considered writing a book on the great pianists. “I don’t know that I could do a good job, but maybe the podcast will take care of that. I think it’s easier to interview great people than write about them.”

Ax is “really excited” about returning to Highland Park more than 50 years since making his Ravinia Festival debut in 1975, quite by chance, astonishingly.

“That was a replacement performance that I did, actually. I was just starting out doing some concerts, and I played a recital that was supposed to be played by Alexis Weissenberg. He canceled just a couple of days earlier for ill health, or whatever it was. And they were pretty frantic. They couldn’t find anybody. So I was very much untried.

“[Ravinia Executive Director] Ed Gordon, who was running the festival then, took a chance. ‘Well, I don’t know him, but he should come and play the concert.’ So I came and fortunately, I think it went all right. Ed and I became very good friends. He was a wonderful man, a warmhearted, decent, wonderful person. And a wonderful pianist. Ed was extraordinary and is very missed.

“I have wonderful memories of all my years at Ravinia. One of the really special moments for me was when there was a Mozart festival that [then-Music Director James] Levine used to do every summer. They were marathons, and I did a Mozart concerto one summer, and a couple of pieces later, they announced that there were going to be two Mozart arias with a singer none of us knew yet at the time, Kathleen Battle. I remember that very well. We had no idea who she was, we’d never heard her. It was like an angel descended from heaven. I will never forget that. It was sheer perfection. She sang so fabulously. It was an unforgettable event.”

Central to Ax’s many appearances both at Ravinia and downtown over the years has, of course, been the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. “That orchestra has been an incredible part of my life. Not only playing with them, but as a student, we used to hear them regularly with [Georg] Solti and [Carlo Maria] Giulini when they came to New York. And those were incredibly memorable events. Those were a big, big part of our concertgoing life and upbringing. Fabulous concerts.

“I did a lot with the CSO and with [then-CSO Principal Conductor] Bernard Haitink, which was also an incredible honor and pleasure. I’ve been very lucky to be in Chicago over the years.”

Ax reports that his Ravinia memories are “mainly of the great conductors I got to play with. [Gennady] Rozhdestvensky was one of them. I remember one time when we rehearsed Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto, every time we would arrive at a point where he had to come in or I had to come in, everything was fine. For the rest, he would say, ‘Why rehearse? Not necessary.’ He just didn’t like rehearsals. He had a thing about it.

“Sometimes you see that with people like Itzhak [Perlman] and so forth, they have a built-in prejudice against rehearsals because they feel it somehow kills a little bit of spontaneity. I always was exactly the other way around. I thought the more you rehearse, the more freedom you will have to do different things in performance.

“I played the ‘Emperor’ Concerto with Itzhak at Ravinia, and that was very special. I had worshipped his playing since I was a little kid, you know, and it was amazing to play with him as conductor. Quite wonderful.

“I’ve done a lot of stuff there over the years with Christoph von Dohnányi and various great people at Ravinia. A couple of things with [then-Music Director] James Conlon. It’s been a nice time for me. I was very lucky."

As for Ax’s journey with the John Williams Piano Concerto that he is bringing to Ravinia, he says, “It’s very straightforward. John Williams mentioned in some interview a couple of years ago that he wanted to write a piano concerto. I just took the bull by the horns and wrote him a note. I knew him from Tanglewood a bit, and I said, ‘If you really mean that, I would love to play it.’ He very kindly answered right away and said, ‘Great, let’s do it.’

"And then he wrote me the piece, though he said that he always had always wanted to write a piano concerto. We’ve been playing it. I’ve done it in a few places, and I’m very happy about it.”

Was what Williams wrote a surprise vs. what Ax might have expected?

“I didn’t know what to expect. I mean, I knew it wouldn’t be like ’Star Wars’ because I had heard his Violin Concerto and the piece he wrote for Yo-Yo. So I knew it would be closer to Schoenberg than to ’Star Wars.’ I knew more or less it was going to be not easy and thorny. And it turned out to be not easy and thorny. But I like it very much. It’s quite pleasing. People seem to enjoy it.”

The three movements are inspired by great jazz pianists: Art Tatum, Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson.

“The Art Tatum stuff in the first movement is more about the chords that he used to play, which are very Tatum. For the Bill Evans reference, that movement is kind of dreamy. It’s more about mood than notes. The last movement includes riffs that Oscar Peterson might have used, but they’re not as difficult as what Peterson did, since I could never have played any of that stuff.”

In all of Ax’s years as a classical pianist, has he ever had interest in playing jazz piano? “I love hearing it, but I can’t do it at all. But I love listening to it. I’m a great Oscar Peterson fan. I know a lot of his recordings.”

Would Ax ever think to play anything like that?

“Oh, I did. It was hopeless. I did a lot of work with André Previn over the years, and he tried to show me a couple of things, but he gave up and told me to ‘go practice your Chopin.’

“With the Piano Concerto, I just play what’s on the page. I played it for John a few times, and he was generally very positive and helpful, and seemed to be OK with what I was doing. So that’s where we are. I hope the Ravinia performance goes well, and we’ll do our best.”

This is an excerpt from an article published in Ravinia magazine. Reprinted with permission.