Tuesday 25 February 2014

Kalinnikov shines again with the LPO

Balakirev Islamey (Oriental Fantasy)
Khachaturian Piano Concerto
Kalinnikov Symphony No. 1

Osmo Vänskä conductor
Marc-André Hamelin piano
London Philharmonic Orchestra

19 February 2014, Royal Festival Hall, London
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The evening opened with the rather depressing sounds of Alfredo Casella’s arrangement for orchestra of Balakirev’s Islamey.  The original work is the piano show-piece par excellence and brims with rhythmic elan.  The Casella version smudged all the impact with minimal benefit from so-called “orchestral colour”.  The London Philharmonic were nowhere near drilled enough to save it.

No-one could accuse Marc-Andre Hamelin of lack of clarity.  His steely fingers and bright tonal palette dazzled in the Kachaturian Piano Concerto.  Hamelin of course knows no fears when it comes to the virtuoso concerto repertoire, whether established or obscure.  These days the Kachaturian concerto hovers somewhere between the two.  The intelligence of this performance could not alleviate its moments of bombast, nor the impression that Prokofiev might have somehow stolen the manuscript and inserted some of his own writing while Kachaturian wasn’t looking.  Somehow it did not convince.  And this may be partly because, for all his prodigious piano technique, Hamelin plays with a detached, “objective” virtuosity.


Vasily Kalinnikov
But the evening took flight after the interval.  This was my first encounter with the First Symphony of Vasily Kalinnikov and what a very fine work it is.  Completed in the Crimea in 1896 when he was 30 , it was immediately picked up and performed in Kiev, Moscow, Vienna, Berlin and Paris. Sadly, Kalinnikov’s health was fragile and he died at age 35, leaving behind a reputation as one of the great unfulfilled talents of Russian music.

This reputation largely stands on the Symphony No. 1 which is a constant delight to the ear from start to finish. Vanska and the LPO made an excellent case for the work, which bursts with melody handled with grace and subtlety.  The opening of the Andante is musical magic, with a lightness and purity that took the breath away.  The freshness and youthful yearning of the symphony is enormously attractive. As if a Russian Schumann was at work.  But one who could orchestrate.