The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and Vladimir Ashkenazy brought about very sincere and honest music-making. They also brought along rising pianist Behzod Abduraimov in two war-horse piano concerto performances that were excellently played. The programmes (on 26 & 27 October 2009) comprised mainly Russian Romantic repertoire that maestro Ashkenazy excels in – Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and also some English music from Elgar (The Enigma Variations). The piano concertos featured were those of Tchaikovsky (No 1) and Rachmaninov (No 3).
The Prokofiev symphonies chosen for this SSO tour were the First (the most popular) and the Fifth (the masterpiece) – amongst the seven that the composer wrote. The First was played in sprightly manner and the epic performance of the Fifth was thoroughly enjoyable.
As for the piano concertos, the London International Piano Competition winner Abduraimov clearly has a great future in front of him. There was no great interpretive stance in the concertos that is very individually unique yet from Abduraimov but at least his playing was not as exaggerated as Lang Lang (in his awful Tchaikovsky PC 1 performance with the touring Philadelphia Orchestra some years ago in KL).
Tonally, he lacks some weight and heft (Arcadi Volodos who also toured KL some years back is supreme in this characteristic) but given time, he would improve in this aspect. Nevertheless, these two concerts were very enjoyable and it is always a pleasure to watch Ashkenazy make music in KL. He is a much welcome and honoured musical visitor here.
1 comment:
Google made me found this blog, and I also been an audience of MPO (or DFP, for the place). :D
(I'm not music literal, don't know any of the instrument, therefore can't describe anything with musical term...)
"The piano concertos featured were those of Tchaikovsky (No 1) and Rachmaninov (No 3)."
There is a mistake here, the 2nd concerto is Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, not Rachmaninoff.
I went for the 2nd day and listen to the Prokofiev's concerto (didn't manage to get the ticket for the Tchaikovsky). And it is very very nice (probably because he won the London International Piano Competition with the same piece?)
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