The St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra got off to a disappointing
start with a bloodless and disorganised trundle through
Rimsky-Korsakov's Golden Cockerel suite. Their playing was
ragged and uninspired and the sound rather thin.
Fortunately, Evgeny Kissin was the dominant factor in the performance
of Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto which followed. The orchestra
negotiated the minimal accompaniment without mishap and allowed Kissin
to carry the entire performance unhindered. This he proceeded to do
in extraordinary style! Technically impeccable, he met all the
challenges of the solo part with assurance and totally dominated
proceedings. However, this was no empty exercise in bravura
exhibitionism: Kissin played without extraneous flambouyance, fully
focussed on the musical requirements of the piece, giving what must be
a near-definitive account of the work. Kissin's is a prodigious
talent and he puts it to work with supreme confidence, but ultimately
this was a musical triumph.
In spite of some wayward brass solos at the start, the St. Petersburg
Philharmonic and Yuri Temirkanov's rendition of the Ravel
orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition was not
without some merit. Their playing seemed more together, and the
overall sound more rounded than they had managed before the interval.
They treated the work as a cohesive whole, rather than concentrating
on making the individual pictures distinctive, and succeeded in
building up a convincing momentum as their performance proceeded. The
effect was rather spoiled at the conclusion of "The Great Gate of
Kiev" by a greatly simplified re-working of the percussion parts in
the final bars, robbing the piece of the anticipated frisson of
syncopation at the climax. A great shame. One can only conclude that
the players could not be relied upon to cope with Ravel's
demands... and that says it all really!
Prom 48
(1998)
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7.30pm
- Tuesday, 25th August,
1998
- Royal Albert Hall