Reino Unido
Russian Roulette. Hit and miss Salonen
Andrew Maisel
This was a cleverly conceived (if a little too long) programme of three 20th century Russian favourites combined with Tchaikovsky's inspiration based on Dante's Inferno. The combination of Petrushka and Francesca da Rimini promised sonic fireworks but it was Shostakovich's creations in the first half which proved more rewarding.
The suite from his 1930 ballet, the Age of Gold, is a curious work. It's a bizarre story about a Soviet football team on tour in a capitalist country and the experiences it encounters as it takes on and presumably triumphs over western decadence. The music is a pot-pourri of styles and dances, from polkas and waltzes to an ardent central adagio in which a night club dancer tries, without success, to seduce the captain of the football team. The Philharmonia coped artfully with all the changes in genres and styles with playing that was crisp and witty (especially in the 3rd movement polka). Simon Haram's lyrical soprano saxaphone solo was a highlight in the adagio.
The Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili has already won praise for her recording of Shostakovich's first Violin concerto on DG, again with Esa-Pekka Salonen, and this beautifully reflective performance was ample evidence of the rapport the two artists have built up. Her interpretation has been compared in some quarters to that of the great Russian virtuoso David Oistrakh, whom the work was originally written for, but it's hard to make comparisons when the two interpretations are so different. Less outwardly virtuoisistic than many others in the bravura passages, Batiashvili seemed to go further into the score in the meditative opening movement and especially in the 'Passacaglia' where she produced playing of quite frightening concentration. As the long cadenza unwound steadily and with rapt intensity one could almost hear a pin drop in the unusually silent Albert Hall. Those looking for more brio in the concluding presto could have been disappointed but Batiashvilil's less insistent approach was entirely in keeping with the rest of the performance. Praise as well for Salonen and his orchestra who stepped back and provided her with sufficient but discreet support.The charming Shostakovich Piano waltz provided the encore.
The second half was an anti-climax in comparison. Salonen's reading of Petrushka (the 1947 version) cried out for a more technicolor approach than the monochrome version we got here. There were some fine solos from Samuel Coles on flute and a biting contribution from Alistair Mackie on trumpet but too often fine detail and colour were often obscured by Salonen's square and somewhat pedestrian conducting.
The symphonic fantasy, Francesca da Rimini, takes hysteria and passion to new heights, even by Tchaikovsky's standards, but in the right hands it can be a thrilling, no holes barred experience. Salonen's approach ensured that there was plenty of excitement (and volume) in the opening and closing salvos, where the souls of the damned are tossed around by the winds of hell. However the tension wasn't maintained throughout and this stop-start approach made the shattering coda sealing the fate of lovers sounding tagged on rather than inevitable. Even in a work as over the top as this some of the direction could have been a little more subtle, only really working in the calmer waters of the love theme where beautifully floated wind playing proved suitably evocative.
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