BBCSSO, 13/05/2018
Rachmaninoff : Piano Concerto No. 3 (Behzod Abduraimov, piano)
Rachmaninoff : Symphonic Dances
Rachmaninoff : Vespers*
Russian Orthodox Chant*
*BBC Singers
*Elena Sharkova
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Dausgaard
During this season, the BBCSSO has performed several concerts which put the music of a particular composer in context with the music of his homeland, and with which he might have grown up, and this afternoon's Rachmaninoff concert was the latest in this series, choosing to highlight the influences of the Russian Orthodox Church and its very special music. To this end, the two concert works were preceded by Orthodox chants, and the concert concluded with a slightly abridged performance of the Vespers, or All-Night Vigil, as it's more correctly called. It made for a rather long concert, but there are certainly worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon.
After an opening chant, presented as a processional, to excellent effect, the young Uzbekh pianist Behzod Abduraimov delivered an impetuous, barnstorming reading of the 3rd Piano Concerto. The odd thing about this performance was how closely Dausgaard was watching Abduraimov. Now, of course conductor and soloist need to keep a weather eye on each other, in order to coordinate the sensitive points of entry and exit, at the very least. However, usually, it's discreet glances for the most part, occasionally a little more if there's a particularly tricky corner to be negotiated, but then the conductor leaves the soloist to his/her own devices, and focuses on the orchestra. It's a good thing this orchestra was clearly quite capable of looking after itself, because Dausgaard was watching Abduraimov like a hawk from start to finish; it was disconcerting, to say the least, and I found it a little worrying. There seemed to be no obvious reason for such close attention; Abduraimov did not seem to be inclined to run away with the music, or drag too much, and his virtuosity was not in question. However, despite the fireworks, it was a superficial performance, all flash and little substance. When you've heard what can be done with this music - and I have, in a wonderful performance with Nikolai Lugansky seven years ago (here) - this kind of shallow display can never be genuinely satisfying.
Dausgaard's approach to the Symphonic Dances was also on the idiosyncratic side. There were some splendid textures and sonorities coming from the orchestra, but this was both one of the least dance-like, and the least fantastical performances I've ever heard of this work. Rachmaninoff originally wanted to call it "Fantastic Dances", and that sense of phantasmagoria was quite weak here. Dausgaard's slightly cavalier approach to tempi also meant that the second movement waltz did not really emerge as it should have. There were interesting things going on, but it wasn't the Symphonic Dances I know and love.
The orchestra cleared the stage during the second interval to permit the BBC Singers to descend from the balcony (from which they had delivered the chants earlier in the proceedings) in order to sing thirteen of the fifteen movements of the All-Night Vigil, generally considered one of the crowning glories of Russian Orthodox church music. The BBC Singers delivered a finely focused performance, close-grained and resonant, with suitably subterranean bass-notes at the relevant points, and a clear, simple, direct spirituality to the interpretation, a profound message of hope and devotion, as Rachmaninoff intended it in the troubled days of 1915.
[Next : 17th May]
Rachmaninoff : Symphonic Dances
Rachmaninoff : Vespers*
Russian Orthodox Chant*
*BBC Singers
*Elena Sharkova
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Dausgaard
During this season, the BBCSSO has performed several concerts which put the music of a particular composer in context with the music of his homeland, and with which he might have grown up, and this afternoon's Rachmaninoff concert was the latest in this series, choosing to highlight the influences of the Russian Orthodox Church and its very special music. To this end, the two concert works were preceded by Orthodox chants, and the concert concluded with a slightly abridged performance of the Vespers, or All-Night Vigil, as it's more correctly called. It made for a rather long concert, but there are certainly worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon.
After an opening chant, presented as a processional, to excellent effect, the young Uzbekh pianist Behzod Abduraimov delivered an impetuous, barnstorming reading of the 3rd Piano Concerto. The odd thing about this performance was how closely Dausgaard was watching Abduraimov. Now, of course conductor and soloist need to keep a weather eye on each other, in order to coordinate the sensitive points of entry and exit, at the very least. However, usually, it's discreet glances for the most part, occasionally a little more if there's a particularly tricky corner to be negotiated, but then the conductor leaves the soloist to his/her own devices, and focuses on the orchestra. It's a good thing this orchestra was clearly quite capable of looking after itself, because Dausgaard was watching Abduraimov like a hawk from start to finish; it was disconcerting, to say the least, and I found it a little worrying. There seemed to be no obvious reason for such close attention; Abduraimov did not seem to be inclined to run away with the music, or drag too much, and his virtuosity was not in question. However, despite the fireworks, it was a superficial performance, all flash and little substance. When you've heard what can be done with this music - and I have, in a wonderful performance with Nikolai Lugansky seven years ago (here) - this kind of shallow display can never be genuinely satisfying.
Dausgaard's approach to the Symphonic Dances was also on the idiosyncratic side. There were some splendid textures and sonorities coming from the orchestra, but this was both one of the least dance-like, and the least fantastical performances I've ever heard of this work. Rachmaninoff originally wanted to call it "Fantastic Dances", and that sense of phantasmagoria was quite weak here. Dausgaard's slightly cavalier approach to tempi also meant that the second movement waltz did not really emerge as it should have. There were interesting things going on, but it wasn't the Symphonic Dances I know and love.
The orchestra cleared the stage during the second interval to permit the BBC Singers to descend from the balcony (from which they had delivered the chants earlier in the proceedings) in order to sing thirteen of the fifteen movements of the All-Night Vigil, generally considered one of the crowning glories of Russian Orthodox church music. The BBC Singers delivered a finely focused performance, close-grained and resonant, with suitably subterranean bass-notes at the relevant points, and a clear, simple, direct spirituality to the interpretation, a profound message of hope and devotion, as Rachmaninoff intended it in the troubled days of 1915.
[Next : 17th May]