Dvorak and Beethoven from the Hungarians

Dvořák Legends, Op 59 No 5; Ukolebavka (lullaby) from Four Choruses, Op 29 No 2; Slavonic Dance, Op 72 No 8 

Beethoven Piano Concerto No 5

Dvořák Symphony No 8

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Iván Fischer, conductor

Sir András Schiff, piano

Barbican Hall, London, 30 November 2019

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The Budapest Festival Orchestra never fail to delight, and under the inspired directorship of Ivan Fischer, this proved the case again.  With 6 double bases arrayed at the back, the string sound gleamed supported by rich tonal depth during the opening Dvorak Legend. 

There is nothing this orchestra can't do, so they then stood and delivered an excellent a capella rendition of a Dvorak lullaby for chorus.  Sensitive, balanced and a perfect contrast, and yet another example of the Budapest players' capacity to deftly enliven the traditional classical concert.

Joined by the ultra authoritative musicianship of András Schiff, the Beethoven Emperor Piano Concerto sounded as fresh as the day it was written.  The orchestra continued it's plush sound while Schiff consistently brought out the harmonic writing to surprise the ear.  How simple Schiff made other soloists sound with only eyes for the right hand melody.  The outer movements were thrilling in their structural command and the clarity of his vision.  Although no single approach can encompass this work, and perhaps in the slow movement Schiff's more prosaic approach missed that last ounce of poetry.

Schiff has become more of a cult figure with every year, and he treated us to an extended encore - the first movement of Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata no less - with the repeats.  Rhythmically electrifying and a little showy in its "look at me" internal highlighting.  But it was an encore after all.

Finally the sunny Dvorak 8th Symphony.  It is an episodic work compared to the 7th or 9th, but what episodes.  The Budapest orchestra savoured every one with great care and the flute and oboe contributions were particularly delicious.  The brass get their way at the end but this orchestra always plays with exemplary balance, so it was a triumph with their fellow players.  Long may this orchestra continue.

Janine Jansen scales the heights

Brahms: Violin Concerto
Bruckner: Symphony No.3 (vers. 1877) 
London Philharmonic Orchestra

Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Janine Jansen violin

Royal Festival Hall, London, 3 May 2019
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The concert was billed as "Alpine Journeys", but inevitably the Festival Hall allowed not a bit of mist to develop around all those Brucknerian ostinati.  Jurowski's Bruckner was controlled, sculpted and with that acoustic, not a bit abrupt. Some of this effect may have come from the 1877 version of the symphony presented here by Jurowski.  The last movement in particular had more flow in the later 1889 revision. 

The frenzies were quite ferocious in the Scherzo and Finale but the polkas and landlers had no spring to them, and overall the effect was a little too literal, if thrillingly exact.

The real vistas of the evening came from Janine Jansen's Brahms.  The Brahms Violin Concerto, in a neat bit of programming, was premiered in 1879 and so nearly contemporaneous with the Bruckner.  Jansen plays with real muscle but is distinguished by her responsiveness to the music her fellow musicians, and her ability to inflect rhythm and tone from note to note.  Her high lines are clear but delicate and the lightness of tone brought to mind Ravel in the midst of Brahms.  Now that marks out a master violinist.

Janine Jansen

Arcadi Volodos plays it quiet

Schubert Piano Sonata in E major, D157
Schubert Six moments musicaux, D780
Rachmaninov Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op 3 No 2
Rachmaninov Prelude in G-flat major, Op 23 No 10
Rachmaninov Prelude in B minor, Op 32 No 10
Rachmaninov Zdes'Khorosho, Romance Op 21 No 7 (arr Volodos)
Rachmaninov Serenade, Op 3 No 5
Rachmaninov Etude tableau in C minor, Op 33 No 3
Scriabin Mazurka, Op 25 No 3
Scriabin Caresse dansée, Op 57 No 2
Scriabin Enigme, Op 52 No 2
Scriabin Flammes sombres, Op 73 No 2
Scriabin Guirlandes, Op 73 No 1
Scriabin Vers la flamme, Op 72

Arcadi Volodos piano

Barbican Hall, London, 7 March 2019
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As a pianist, Arcadi Volodos, is very much sui generis. His pianism of such quality that it is a wonder in itself, as much for its poetic as technical capacity.

He performed the early incomplete D157 Sonata of Schubert with enormous care and a kind of radiant inwardness which made a maximum case for this sonata.  Most memorable was the hypnotic Andante.  Then began what must be one of the slowest performances of the Moments Musicaux in London recital history.  These are magical pieces, and Volodos' willingness to truly play piano was admirable.  But the effect was ever so slightly soporific.

The sequence of Rachmaninov preludes may have been expected to change the tone, but no.  Reflective, exquisitely weighted performances continued.  The B Minor Prelude Op 32/10 could have been written for Volodos' special qualities.  His velvet touch and deep musicianship turned its 5 minutes into a searching, epic experience.  But was not some drama missing?

Scriabin's miniatures are as important as Rachmaninov's to the piano repertoire and here Volodos' apparently limitless palate of colours and intonation spoke authentically.  There is always a question of how to shape these pieces.  Are they short, incomplete statements, or rounded coherent journeys? Volodos gave us supple pianism, but favoured the moment over the whole.

All of which led us to the inexhaustible mysteries of Vers la flamme (Towards the flame).  In many ways the culmination of Scriabin's mystical beliefs, the build towards the flames of destruction (of music? of the world?) was compelling as Scriabin's roulades of tremolos and harmonies rounded off the advertised programme.

This recital certainly did not catch fire.  However it was a fine meditative experience, eavesdropping on a pianist producing magical sounds, while stuck in a slow inward mode throughout.

Arcadi Volodos

Radu Lupu acclaimed in Beethoven

Beethoven: Coriolan Overture

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.4
Rachmaninov: Symphony No.2 

Philharmonia Orchestra
Paavo Järvi conductor
Radu Lupu piano

Royal Festival Hall, London 3 February 2019

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Based on decades of exalted musicianship, Radu Lupu is very much in the cult-status category in Europe.  The rarity of his visits to London ensured a packed Festival Hall for his concerto, and also some empty seats after the interval.

His musical prestige has for long also been a source of pride for his native Romania and this concert was accompanied by a foreword from the Romanian government during its current 6 month presidency of the Council of the EU.

Not that all of this has in any way affected the man. This evening will live long in the memory for Radu Lupu's direct, unaffected truth-telling. His physical presence on stage with his straight backed chair that of a genial monk, occasionally glancing at his figures with mild surprise they'd hit a wrong note, generally engaged with the music and his colleagues in the orchestra.

Lupu's particular magic was a wonderful match for Beethoven's Fourth Concerto.  Happy to play genuine pianissimos his approach emphasised the delicacy and clarity of the music, far removed from the thicker sonorities that are the norm.  His soundworld remains a delight from its distinctively pearly treble notes to the beautifully weighted harmonies of the bass.  Following enthusiastic acclaim, a perfectly judged encore of Brahms' Intermezzo Op 117/1 followed.

Beside all this Paavo Jarvi's approach to the Beethoven Coriolan Overture was studied rather than dramatic and the more successful Rachmaninov built up in slabs of bold, direct interpretation. A refusal to linger may have tempered the emotion at times, but of course this symphony does not lack for that.  The Philharmonia's woodwind did not have their most characterful night, but the strings and brass played with great depths of tone and drama, and what can be a wayward symphony developed towards a very satisfying sense of culmination at the end.

Radu Lupu

Fast Wagner

Wagner: Die Walküre

Stuart Skelton tenor, Siegmund

Markus Marquardt bass, Wotan 
Ruxandra Donose mezzo-soprano, Sieglinde 
Stephen Milling bass, Hunding
Claudia Mahnke mezzo-soprano, Fricka
Svetlana Sozdateleva soprano, Brünnhilde

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

Royal Festival Hall, London 27 January 2019
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How often does Act 2 of Die Walküre trump the outer Acts?  This is what happened here where Vladimir Jurowski's fast paced directness, Markus Marquardt's subtle Wotan and Claudia Mahnke's strongly characterised Fricka made for an effortless dramatic experience.  And there to cap it all was Stuart Skelton's superb Siegmund.  The scene when Brunnhilde announces Siegmund's impending death in battle was hypnotic, with Skelton achieving a lyrical expressiveness beyond most.

Skelton was no less wonderful in Act 1, despite Jurowski's almost comically fast speed for Wintersturme.  His cries of Walse! Walse! were thrilling.  In Act 3, the valkyries were vocally uneven, not helped by their positioning in the choir gallery behind the orchestra. The biggest loser from this bit of semi-staging was Sieglinde who had to sing her climactic outpouring of admiration for Brunnhilde in Act 3 from the very back of the stage.

Svetlana Sozdateleva was a solid Brunnhilde, but not entirely on top of the characterisation.  Juroswki's London Philharmonic blended well with the voices, but was a little breathless and the Magic Fire Music at the end of the evening did not transport.  

Stuart Skelton and Ruxandra Donose

Wagner in Melbourne

Wagner Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg

Michael Kupfer-Radecky Hans Sachs
Stefan Vinke Walther von Stolzing
Natalie Aroyan Eva
Warwick Fyfe Sixtus Beckmesser

Opera Australia Chorus
Orchestra Victoria
Kasper Holten director
Pietari Inkinen conductor

State Theatre, Melbourne November 2018
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What a pleasure to be back in the State Theatre with its glorious curtain, troubling acoustic echo, and a most satisfying production of Wagner's Meistersinger.

Seen by Wagner as a pair to his Tannhauser, both feature singing competitions with Die Meistersinger receiving extra lashings of German pride and nationalism. The conclusion where Hans Sach (up until that point a sympathetic character) warns all and sundry of the dangers of nasty foreigners jars and the production tried to carve it out by flooding the stage in harshly cold lighting at that point.  Was the idea that it was not really part of the rest of the opera?  That we could leave it to one side?

The set was a monumental marble construction with traditional liveryman garb for the Mastersinger members.  Walther's biker look seemed a bit odd but he is meant to be the outsider, albeit an aristocractic one.

The production was well sung across the board, with Warwick Fyfe's Beckmesser strong in voice and characterisation, and Michael Kupfer-Radecky projecting humanity and doubt as Hans Sachs wrestles with his demons.  It's coup de theatre came at the end with a roundly annoyed Eva storming off stage as Walther (who had promised to run away with her) is convinced to join the mastersingers men's club and respect German tradition.

This was at the end of the glorious 2 hour Third Act, which takes off to a whole other level of musical quality after Acts 1 and 2.  One among so many examples of Wagner's overwhelming artistic genius.

Eva before Walther fails her

The State Theatre's curtain

Alexander Karpeyev debut disc

Russian Emigré Composers

Prokofiev Visions fugitives Op.22 Nos. 1,4,8,9,11,14,15,18,19
Medtner Sonata-Ballade Op. 27
Grechaninov Op. 78/1-2, Op. 61/2,5,6
Rachmaninov Nyne otpushchayeshi from the All-Night Vigil Op. 37
Fragments (1917)
Etude-Tableaux Op. 39/7
Stravinsky Three Movements from Petroushka


Students of this blog will recognize this as the disc of the recital that Alexander Karpeyev toured internationally during 2017, the anniversary of the 1917 Russian revolution.  This original and excellent programme features the composers who left Russia immmediately before or after 1917: Prokofiev, Medtner, Grechaninov, Rachmaninov and Stravinsky.

All the music is chosen to illustrate the ‘final flowering’ of these composers between 1910 and 1919.  After leaving Russia, maintaining a distinctive voice was not easy for any of them.  Each of the émigrés developed their own relationship to Russia after leaving.  Prokofiev returned home permenantly after 15 years living in France and the US.  Medtner settled in London while Grechaninov, Rachmaninov and Stravinsky ended up in the US.  All struggled to maintain their creativity after 1917.

Karpeyev is a Medtner specialist and the Sonate-Ballade Op. 27 grows with each listening.  The Finale is particularly winning with its rich melodic inspiration and glittering ornamentation.  The Grechaninov character pieces are all very well characterized, and the recital reaches the apex of its nostalgia for old Russia with a marvelous rendition of the "Nyne otpushchayeshi" from Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil and the Etude-Tableaux Op. 39/7 with – what could be more Russian – its climax of pealing bells.

The piano is in very good shape and the recording in St Bartholomew's Church in Brighton sets the piano at a slight distance in a resonant acoustic.  The airy sound does least favours to the Prokofiev Visions Fugitives.  Coupled with a romantic performance, the result is slightly unfocused.

The famous Stravinsky showpiece from Petroushka is given a dazzling performance, awash with colour and very strongly characterized.  There were many details I’d never heard before and the expressiveness was a welcome contrast to the famous speed-fest version from Maurizio Pollini.  Not that Karpeyev is exactly slow, just that the story-telling which is inherent in this score is given more space to weave its magic.

This recording beautifully captures Karpeyev’s qualities and sound world: virtuosity led by musicality of great poetry and refinement.  A very fine debut with no doubt more to come.