BARGAIN OF THE MONTH
Nobel Prize Concert
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975) Festive Overture Op.96
Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937) Piano concerto in G Op.83
Frédéric CHOPIN (1810-1849) Mazurka in C Op.24 No.2
Serge PROKOFIEV (1891-1953) Suites Nos.1 and 2 from Romeo and Juliet
Opp.64 bis & 64 ter (excerpts)
Martha Argerich (piano)
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/Yuri Temirkanov
rec. live, Stockholm Concert Hall, 8 December 2009
Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo Dolby Digital 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
EUROARTS DVD 2057898 [80:00]
Each year a concert is given in Stockholm to mark the distribution of Nobel
prizes. The programme for 2009 was recorded live and consists of popular Russian
and French music which would not have taxed the grey cells of the assembled
brains or the Swedish royalty in attendance. Under the batonless and diminutive
figure of Yuri Temirkanov, the music speeds along, belying his three score
and ten years. Indeed his podium manner is something of a distraction, his
technique more like preparing wallpaper with paste on a plank between ladders
if you follow my description. The results, however, are electrifying. The
Swedish players - and probably a host of others in the many orchestras with
which he is associated - clearly love him. He has that whimsical smile playing
around his lips which one associates with Rozhdesventsky, but woe betide anyone
who needs a downbeat; all they’ll see is a sideswipe. The playing is fabulous
from all departments, cor anglais, flute, harp, horn, trumpet and trombone
in the Ravel; all those plus a host more in the Prokofiev. Martha Argerich,
also a septuagenarian in a year’s time, is hugely impressive in a magnificently
clear and clean account of the concerto, followed by a wonderfully understated
rendition of a Chopin mazurka as an encore. The Prokofiev ballet music burns
with passion and zips along at a furious pace in anything marked Allegro
or faster, while the Shostakovich gets the programme underway in a blaze
of brass and in true festive fashion.
Direction is traditional with cameras zooming in predictably on solo instrumentalists.
Temirkanov’s antics make him hugely photogenic, while Argerich’s fingers,
if not her hair-do, are a revelation. As a musician she cuts a modest, humble
figure, which she is.
Christopher Fifield
Electrifying