SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

 

 

Tchaikovsky: Fantasy Overture, Romeo and Juliet

Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op.63

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36.

 

This was the second concert by the Philharmonia featuring Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky conducted by the Russian maestro Yuri Temirkanov. The opening of the Romeo and Juliet overture, in the familiar revised version, convincingly intoned the tranquility of the City of Verona, but by the time we reached the Friar Laurence's theme, suggesting a mood of tension and foreboding and a prefiguration of the violent tension between the Capulets and the Montagues, it was difficult to detect the note of immanent conflict. Here Friar Laurence might just as well have been on a leisurely stroll to pick up the morning papers, or the equivalent of in Renaissance Verona. The 'Allegro giusto' , depicting the violent clashes between the two opposing families, sounded well enough, but surely the composer is asking for more tension and drama here? Even the off-beat cymbal crashes sounded relatively tame. The D flat opening of the famous love music, here and when it returns on full orchestra with cantabile strings,  lacked the necessarly tonal finesse for the young lovers, I remember hearing with the original Phiharmonia under Cantelli. The final funeral tones, at the death of Romeo and Juliet, and the metamorphosis of the love tune leading to the coda, were well conducted, although I found the string tone, especially in the basses, rather restricted. The rather strident  brass here needed toning down too. 

 

I have not heard Sakaya Shoji before, but judging by tonight’s performance of Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto she is a most promising violinist. There was plenty of virtuosic excellence in the 'Allegro ben marcato' finale with its slightly 'Spanish' flavour, its waltz like inflections and almost baroque ascending/descending solo figurations.. But in the tonally ambiguous, and slightly haunted quality of the second movement 'Andante assai' ( which some have seen as a parody of the second movement of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto),  she demonstrated quite remarkable abilities of contrast between the lyrical and the stark pizzicato rhythms, suggesting a kind of primitive piano. St the end of this movement, Ms Shoji gave us some beautifully sustained sotto voce playing. Her opening solo recitative could have done with a little less vibrato but was compellingly contoured and throughout, Temirkanov accompanied with tact and insight.  

 

The Tchaikovsky Fourth symphony was something of a mixed bag. As with the earlier performance of the Fifth symphony, the first two movements were marred by agogic tempo changes and excessively slow tempi especially  in the first movement, at the build up to the development section, where the conductor slowed down the 'in Waltz-time'  ostinato every time in the p, pp timpani and woodwind slow crescendo, which gives way to a lyrical string phrase. The B flat minor second movement 'Andantino' , which should flow with movement also dragged. Temirkanov’s rather arbitary deployment of rubato seriously interfered with the movement’s onward dramatic structure which the composer regarded as one of his most successful symphonic achievements. The performance began with some rather unsteady horn playing in the opening, 'fate' motive, fanfares. They are marked to be played ff and they are accompanied by ff bassoons. Tonight all I could hear was loud horns ( more like fff) with inaudible bassoons. It is in such details of orchestral balance  (including, as previously mentioned, a distinct lack of tonal sonority in the double-basses) that conductors like Klemperer and Mravinsky excel. Here there were many passages (too numerous to list) where either the balance was wrong, or a particular phrase, or dynamic marking was ignored. In the gentle rocking rhythm in the woodwinds, which initiate the first movement waltz theme, where was the charm tinged slightly by melancholy, and lost desire -  'Like a hidden memory of a secret romance' - in the composers words?  As I commented in my review of the Fifth symphony last week, it is quite amazing that a conductor who worked with Mravinsky in Leningrad, as it was then, seems to have learned so little from the relationship. With Mravinsky the sudden shift to B minor for the 'fate' or motto theme, forcefully stated by trumpets over a  powerful fff timpani roll, really had an apocalyptic tone to it. Tonight, it was simply played; it came and went, so to speak. As already noted, the second movement 'Andantino' (in no way a 'slow movement') dragged unnecessarily. This was particularly irksome in quasi trio in F major, where the Russian folk tune theme lacked any sense of rhythmic lift, or agility. The two final movements were more successful, although surprisingly, there were some slight inaccuracies in the trio section (particularly in the piccolo) of the pizzicato third movement. The 'Allegro con fuoco' finale was on the fast side, as is apt, and hugely exciting. Here and there I noticed some messy brass ensemble, particularly in the exhilarating coda, but in general this was conducted, and played with a tremendous sense of conviction in the festive nature of the music. It is a pity the same sense of conviction did not span the whole symphony.

Geoff Diggines