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AND HEARD CONCERT REVIEW
Sibelius and Rachmaninov:
Alexander Toradze (piano), London Philharmonic Orchestra. Jukka–Pekka Saraste, Royal Festival Hall, London, 15.10.2008 (BBr)
Sibelius:
Pohjola’s Daughter, op.49 (1906)
Rachmaninov:
Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, op.30 (1909)
Sibelius:
Symphony No.5 in Eb, op.82 (1914/1915 rev 1919)
Rachmaninov wrote his 3rd Concerto for his
American debut and gave the première
in New York, under the baton of Walter Damrosch; two months later he
played it again in the Big Apple, at Carnegie Hall, with the New
York Philharmonic under their new Music Director, Gustav Mahler.
There’s a performance I would dearly love to have heard! Tonight, we
had two musicians whose credentials are as well known as their
illustrious predecessors and who can be relied upon to deliver the
goods.
This was a fine performance of Rachmaninov’s largest Concerto but,
superb player that Toradze is, and well thought out as his
interpretation was, I found him to be too introspective, too often.
There were moments when his private communion with the keyboard was
such that he seemed to be enjoying the performance at the expense of
the audience. In the past, I have moaned about the orchestra
swamping the piano and the balance being poor, but here while
the balance was very good, Toradze allowed himself to
be overwhelmed as he played. Take, for instance, the very opening of
the work. A short vamp from the orchestra then the piano gives out a
folk–like theme in simple octaves. Our pianist played this very
plainly and easily, but too quietly, so much so that a counter idea
from bassoon was louder than the piano. The same thing happened in
the recapitulation, and throughout the first movement there
was this discrepancy of playing which was too light for the music
and in which the orchestra was allowed to dominate when it shouldn’t
have been in the forefront. Of course, Toradze was not without the
weight when necessary but he was repeatedly too reticent. The slow
movement went well, with a fine ensemble and a well thought out view
of the music and when the finale burst out, Toradze threw
himself into the bravura writing with a vengeance. I thought “this
is it!” but we quickly returned to the private musings. The audience
went wild at the end but I wonder how much this was because the
music is written to create such a response; because for
me at least, there was insufficient heft to make this most
titanic of Piano Concertos come alive as the struggle that it
should be. Toradze is clearly a very intelligent and thoughtful
player but a little less thought and more animal passion would have
been most welcome.
There were no such problems with the two Sibelius works which made
up the bulk of the programme. I was pleased to read, in his
interesting programme note, Andrew Mellor quote my dear master
Harold Truscott, as saying that Pohjola’s Daughter is “a
genuine one–movement Symphony”, for it is such a cogently argued
work that it has all the material necessary, and all the working out
of that music, to qualify it as such. Saraste gave us the music that
way, the violent outbursts growing naturally from the development of
the themes, devastating in their power. But there was also much
beautiful restrained music which brought out the best in the playing
of the LPO. A wonderful performance in this measured and superbly
paced interpretation.
May I mention here - purely on a personal note - Andrew Mellor’s use
of the word 'Musicologist' in relation to Harold Truscott? In
Waiting for Godot, Vladimir and Estragon have an
argument in which the worst insult one can hurl at the other is
Critic! As a young, and very inexperienced, student I once
called Harold a musicologist and I well remember the look on his
face and his tone of voice when he said, “you can call me many
things but you could never call me a musicologist!” Harold saw
himself purely as a musician who occasionally wrote about music –
that’s one of the many things he taught me. Mr Mellor could not know
this, of course, but reading the word brought back many memories and
for that I am grateful to him.
After the interval, Saraste and the LPO gave a towering
performance of the great 5th Symphony. Emphasising
the light and shade in this work, Saraste created a vast landscape
which could be icily unwelcoming – the development section of the
first movement where the solo bassoon (superbly realised by John
Price) plays plaintively, over quiet string ruminations, was quite
desolate and felt like some sort of dead zone – through to becoming
emotionally awe-inspiring at the very end where the tension was
screwed up to fever pitch and the 'Thor’s hammer' blows which,
although fully expected, came as such a shock that the conclusion
was devastating in its utter finality. [Note: Despite the
fact that Sibelius spoke Swedish as his first language, the Norse
deity Thor does not feature in Finnish mythology. Instead, the smith
Ilmarinen, who made himself a wife out of metal as well as forging
the magical sampo appears in the Kalevala and would
have been equally handy with a hammer. Ed]
This was a magisterial reading of a Symphony which still has the
power to shock with its gigantic world view – didn’t Mahler tell
Sibelius that a Symphony must encompass the world or something along
those lines? - and this interpretation did just that.
Magnificent!
Bob Briggs
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