Pianist Alexander Toradze “delivered a memorably brilliant guest performance with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra … Saturday night before being rushed to a local hospital, where he was diagnosed with acute heart failure,” writes Scott Hewitt in Wednesday’s (4/27) Columbian (Vancouver, WA). “Toradze remains in Vancouver’s PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center while his health stabilizes, according to his publicist, Matt Herman…. ‘He is doing well,’ … Herman said … Herman said Toradze was looking forward to performing pieces by Stravinsky and Shostakovich with the symphony … but Toradze felt progressively worse on Thursday, Friday and Saturday…. ‘He continued to test negative for COVID’ and insisted on going ahead with the Saturday night performance, Herman said…. Reviewer James Bash … later posted on his website, Northwest Reverb, that …. the audience was warned that the featured soloist might not be able to go on. Toradze eventually walked on stage accompanied by Dr. Michael Liu, an orchestra member and physician…. ‘Toradze pounced on the keyboard’ and played demanding music with great grace and passion, Bash wrote. Afterward, Liu drove Toradze directly to PeaceHealth. ‘Toradze was then told that he had acute heart failure while performing, which was only recognized after his trip to the hospital,’ Herman said.”
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