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Rimsky Korsakov, Prokofiev and Khatchaturian: Freddy Kempf Piano,  Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra / Yuri Simonov (conductor) Colston Hall, Bristol , 23.10.2008 (RB)


The days when well known orchestras and soloists toured extensively have passed, but the arrival in Britain of the Moscow Philharmonic, under its Conductor Yuri Simonov, is showing that it can still send audiences away with the feeling of having participated in a remarkable musical event.  The programme in Bristol's newly refurbished Colston Hall on October 23rd began with Rimsky Korsakov's "Sadko, Opus 5", based on a Russian legend and composed in 1867.  Rimsky Korsakov  wrote to Mussorgsky that  he was satisfied with it and that "It was one of the best things he had composed to date". The Moscow players made the most of the work's voluptuous qualities, which draw particular attention to the woodwind section. This performance showed the orchestra's confidence in doing all that was necessary to recreate Rimsky Korsakov's delightful music.

The programme continued by making the most of the immensely talented young  soloist, Freddy Kempf, in the Prokofiev piano concerto No.3. Here, however, came the first sign that all was not well.  Some of the orchestra's enthusiastic playing and abrupt attack left the soloist struggling to bring authority and subtlety to his part in the proceedings.  It is difficult to know what could have been done to protect the orchestra from its own enthusiasm, though the audience seemed to love it and rose to applaud one of the noisiest performances I have heard in many years of concert-going. The determination of the orchestra  to be the most brilliant item on the platform did not reward Kempf with the opportunities he needed to display his remarkable technique to the full. The concerto itself is a strange mixture of lyricism and twenties musical modernism.

The Spartacus Suite by Khachaturian comprises excerpts from the ballet, constructed by the Orchestra's Conductor, Yuri Simonov, which bring together highlights of the original score and was used in the BBC Television series The Onedin Line, broadcast during the early 1970s.

The Orchestra was generous with its encores, of which the only one familiar to me was an orchestral arrangement of a movement from a quartet by Borodin.

Roy Brewer


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