reviews
Russian State Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall
15/05/08
classical
Tchaikovsky: The Snow Maiden (excerpts)
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No 1
Rachmaninov: Symphony No 2
With the renewed sabre-rattling from Putin's puppet in Moscow, it's easy to forget just how much we have in common with our East European cousins. Looking at and hearing this impressive orchestra, dressed according to gender in de rigueur evening suits and little black numbers, it would have been easy to believe that they were our own CBSO, or some other Western band of equal calibre. They could have just as easily dropped in from Moseley as Moscow. And, though the programme was Russian to the core, appreciation of it transcended all artificial boundaries of state or creed, just as would Elgar performed in St. Petersburg.
Three sweet-meats from Tchaikovsky's Snow Maiden were a pleasant enough warm-up, though unremarkable, apart from some impressive work on the triangle - and it's not often one gets to say that! The Piano Concerto, though, was stunning, and pianist Dmitri Alexeev masterful, whether delicately tickling his way through the delightfully filigree middle movement or storming into the finale.
The evening centred on Rachmaninov's hour-long Second Symphony, a lesser-known but none-the-less engaging work, enjoyable and ably performed from start to finish, and particularly so in the gorgeous third movement: a veritable serenade of strings, riding on a cushion of brass and woodwind, with superb flute playing at the forefront.
As if to prove my earlier point - written, I swear, before the latter half started - the second of two encores was a thundering rendition of Elgar's Pomp & Circumstance March No. 1 ('Land of Hope and Glory'). The audience rightly loved this, and rewarded it with a standing ovation, to broad grins from conductor Mark Gorenstein and his fellow Russians.
If we can get along this well in the concert hall, do we really still need to be pointing weapons of mass destruction at each other?
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No 1
Rachmaninov: Symphony No 2
With the renewed sabre-rattling from Putin's puppet in Moscow, it's easy to forget just how much we have in common with our East European cousins. Looking at and hearing this impressive orchestra, dressed according to gender in de rigueur evening suits and little black numbers, it would have been easy to believe that they were our own CBSO, or some other Western band of equal calibre. They could have just as easily dropped in from Moseley as Moscow. And, though the programme was Russian to the core, appreciation of it transcended all artificial boundaries of state or creed, just as would Elgar performed in St. Petersburg.
Three sweet-meats from Tchaikovsky's Snow Maiden were a pleasant enough warm-up, though unremarkable, apart from some impressive work on the triangle - and it's not often one gets to say that! The Piano Concerto, though, was stunning, and pianist Dmitri Alexeev masterful, whether delicately tickling his way through the delightfully filigree middle movement or storming into the finale.
The evening centred on Rachmaninov's hour-long Second Symphony, a lesser-known but none-the-less engaging work, enjoyable and ably performed from start to finish, and particularly so in the gorgeous third movement: a veritable serenade of strings, riding on a cushion of brass and woodwind, with superb flute playing at the forefront.
As if to prove my earlier point - written, I swear, before the latter half started - the second of two encores was a thundering rendition of Elgar's Pomp & Circumstance March No. 1 ('Land of Hope and Glory'). The audience rightly loved this, and rewarded it with a standing ovation, to broad grins from conductor Mark Gorenstein and his fellow Russians.
If we can get along this well in the concert hall, do we really still need to be pointing weapons of mass destruction at each other?