Conductor: Jean-Claude Casedesus
Pianist: Nikolai Lugansky
Programme:
Dmitri Shostakovich - Festive Overture, Op.96
Sergei Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.18
Maurice Ravel - Pavane for a Dead Princess
Claude Debussy - La Mer
A performance on Rachmaninov's famous Piano Concertos tends to draw quite a lot of attention, and today the concert hall was rather packed (for a classical music concert). The further seats on the higher floors were also quite filled, and even the seats behind the stage had to be opened up.
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| Quite a full turnout tonight |
I haven't heard Shostakovich's Festive Overture before. According to the concert booklet, Shostakovich was approached to write this overture just two days before the 37th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.
'With the concert just two days away, Vasily Nebolsin, a conductor with the Bolshoi Theatre, paid a visit to Shostakovich's apartment:
"Dmitri Dmitriyevich," he said, "we are in a tight spot. We've got nothing to open the concert with."
"All right," replied Shostakovich, "I'll write the overture in no time at all."
"Then," according to a friend who was at Shostakovich's apartment at the time, "he started composing. The speed with which he wrote was truly astounding. He was able to talk, make jokes and compose simultaneously, like the legendary Mozart. He laughed and chuckled, and in the meanwhile work was underway and the music was being written down." As each page was completed, a courier rushed it to the Bolshoi, and the performance went ahead, as scheduled, on 6th November 1954 to great acclaim.'
Such a genius! The short time frame at which he finished the piece was already astonishing, but the fact that he could do so while not being totally focused was truly awe-inspiring as well. The piece was filled with energy, and its festive theme makes it a perfect piece for a celebration. The SSO performed this piece with unusual precision and coordination - something which I don't see very often, especially from their woodwind section.
The highlight of the show, Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto, was performed by Nikolai Lugansky, a Russian pianist who, according to Wikipedia, had managed to learn a Beethoven piano sonata completely by ear and perform it from memory before he had even started to learn the piano. He was only five years old that time.
Lugansky is obviously someone who likes to express his music more visibly. His body movements and hand gestures were larger than the other pianists I have seen, especially during passages that involved lots of powerful chords. The first eight mournful chords were delivered well enough to draw in the audience immediately, though from the fourth chord onwards there was a drastic change in body language that startled me slightly. His playing was free but still within control, according respect to the conductor to allow his guidance. There was one part where he surged out of control though - during the climax of the first movement which involved both hands playing the same chords, he slowed down considerably, apparently to give more emphasis to this passage. But the orchestra and conductor were obviously taken aback by this, and were initially ahead of Lugansky significantly. It took them around four to five seconds - which seemed a lifetime - before they adjusted to his new tempo.
The second and third movements were delivered quite well, and Lugansky ended the concerto on a triumphant note which brought thunderous applause from the audience. The response was so positive that he gave two encores; the first I do not know, but the second was Chopin's Etude No.8 in F major Op.10, a fast piece which involved non-stop arpeggios from the right hand running up and down the piano, while the left hand delivered the main melody firmly. I was very impressed with this piece; Lugansky played with outstanding precision and neatness, with perfect control over the tempo and expressions as well.
