LSO takes the Fifth

Those final chords just keep on coming, as if Beethoven were stomping on a wasp to make sure it’s dead.

But a big symphony requires a big ending, maestro Tim Muffitt said. It’s a matter of proportion.

“Thepiece needs that much finality because of everything that happenedbefore it,” Muffitt said. “There’s a reason why it’s probably the mostfamous piece of music ever.”

BeforeBeethoven, most symphonies were glorified dance cards — ah, here’s theminuet, my dear. After Beethoven, those little dance movementsballooned into theSeven Ages of Man. Beethoven’s Fifth dives straight into the fire ofinner struggle, beginning with that awesome opening shudder.

“It’s a new way of thinking about the unfolding of time,” the maestro explained. “He was moving music to a new scale.”

The freighted  Fifth will be balanced Tuesday by a post-modern romp, “Too Hot Toccata,” from an airbreathing composer, Aaron Jay Kernis, and the sparkling Second Piano Concerto of Frederic Chopin.

“He was only 19 when he wrote it, and I’m 19,” Moshchuk said. “He had a lot of hope for his life, and a lot of ambition.”

Moshchuk is one of two pianists who received this year’s Gilmore Young Artist award, given every two years.

Theartists get a $15,000 grant, a commission for a new solo piano work,and a slew of solo and concerto gigs as part of the Gilmore Festival, abiennial keyboard blowout centered in Kalamazoo.

Moshchuk"is a gifted young musician with the mind to unravel the density ofRachmaninoff’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor and the fingers andwrists to realize it," noted Grand Rapids Press critic JeffreyKaczmarczyk in a review of last Saturday’s recital in Grand Rapids.

Moshchuk’sfamily came to Grosse Pointe Farms when he was 4. He first took up thekeyboard to emulate his brother, Alexander, 10 years his senior.

“Ihave always looked up to him, and he supports me in every way,”Moshchuk said. Alexander is flying in from the West Coast to see hisbrother’s first two Gilmore Festival recitals.

Notone to slack off in anything — he’s reading “War and Peace” right now —Moshchuk is tearing off steaming chunks of Beethoven, Busoni, Scriabinand Rachmaninov for the recitals.

“I feel like what I play chooses me,” he said.

Unlikemany bloody classical cockfights, the Gilmore award is non-competitive:Contestants are not told they’re in the running until they win. “It wasa complete shock,” Moshchuk said.

Out of 24 pianists who have gotten the award so far, Moshchuk is only the second Michigan resident. This year’s other honoree is Charlie Albright of Centralia, Wash.

The Gilmore awards andfestival have a growing international cachet. National names like NewYorker critic Alex Ross and jazz legends Cedar Walton and Fred Herschare taking part this year.

Muffitt said he’s never met Moshchuk, but is completely satisfied with the “Gilmore pedigree.”

The maestro plans togive Moshchuk his head for a concerto that’s “entirely piano-driven”and calls for a lot of flexibility from the orchestra.

“But that’s part of the fun,” Muffitt said. “I love communicatingwith another musician on that level — taking the ebb from the soloistand giving the flow back to the orchestra.”

Moshchuk likes theconcerto’s pastoral bits, including a storm, in the second movement,and finds humor, even sarcasm, in the third.

“It’s prettywell-documented he drew his inspiration from his love for a singer hemet at school,” Moshchuk said. “It was one of the happier times in hislife.”

Pushing the topic of affinity between composer and soloist, it’s tempting to ask whether Moshchuk has a muse.

“That’s a very profound question,” he said after two rounds of coy laughter. “I definitely have my own sources of inspiration.”

“Sources,” plural? He must be referring to “War and Peace.”

Lansing Symphony Orchestra

Ivan Moshchuk, piano 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 4 Wharton Center Cobb Great Hall $12-$45 (800) WHARTON