Juliet Williams on the Gergiev LSO Brahms/Symanowski series:
"It was the final poerfpomanceIt was in fact the final
performance of the cycle – given last night in the Usher Hall – which was the
highlight of the Brahms/Szymanowski given by the LSO under Gergiev as part of
the Edinburgh International Festival's concert programme. This offered the listener
a very intense bill of fare, with two major solists perfroming what are in
effect concerti, and Brahms's final symphony, a culmination of his ambitions as
a major post-Beethovenian symphonist.
The quality of the concert was
due in no small measure to the excellent playing of both soloists, the Siberian
pianist Denis Matsuev in Szymanowski's Fourth Symphony (a piano concerto by any
other name) and Leonidas Kavakos in that composer's Second Violin Concerto.
Matsuev was virtuostic , bringing considerable dynamic range to the part which
the composer – himself a piano virtouso – had premiered personally.
There was a palpable rapport
between Kavakos, Gergiev and LSO leader, Roman Simovic, in the second violin
concerto, which made this a very enjoyable performance to watch. Kavakos also
excelled in the lengthy cadenza linking its two outer sections, which was
written in fact by the work's dedicatee, the composer's close friend Paul
Kochanski who gave its first performance. It is worth going to the London (or
other) performances of this concert just to this piece alone ! The inclusion of
the excellent Szymanowksi 4, perhaps on balance the most successful item of the
entire concert cycle is a further bonus.
Simovic is to be commended for
his enjoyable playing in both work, especially his solo which precedes a
violin-only section (also good) late on the fourth symphony.
In the second, slow, movement of
the opening Fourth Symphony, the audience were also at last able to hear how
Szymanowski can sound at his delicate and exotic best. These qualities have
been largely absent from the middle (romantic) period works presented, never
more sadly conspicuous than in the Third Symphony, whose main saving grace
in the Edinburgh performance was the
excellent singing and characterisation of Steve Davislim, who has already been commended on this site for his interpretation of this role under the
baton of Peter Eotvos. This reviewer concurs with and endorses the views
expressed by colleagues here that he would be an excellent shepherd in Krol
Roger.
Gergiev's conducting here has
majored in loudness and big climaxes, with a lack of tonal variation or
subtlety. Few of the works on the programme lend themselves well to this
approach and this, combined with the surprising programming, has made the
listening experience patchy. There have been rare moments when a less bombastic
approach has crept in and some very enjoyable music has resulted. Several of
these were in this final performance.
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