Budapest Festival Orchestra, Iván Fischer conductor; Igor Levit piano. Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes arr. for orchestra, Op.34a; Piano Concerto No.2; Prokofiev: Selection from Cinderella Suites
This was a concert I probably wouldn’t have gone to had I not been in London for the evening, prior to getting an early Eurostar train to, ultimately, Berlin [not even with one of Europe’s finest orchestras and an estimable conductor and soloist]. After a mad scramble to work out what to do following the discovery that King’s Cross Underground was closed off, I got to the concert with a few minutes to spare.
Prokofiev I always feel a little unenthusiastic about, somehow – I remember Norman Lebrecht describing a late-night argument with Gergiev about whether or not Shostakovich or Prokofiev was the finer composer. Gergiev argued passionately for Prokofiev – but I’m afraid I just can’t see it….somehow Shostakovich touches the heart again and again in a way Prokofiev just doesn’t.
The Overture on Hebrew Themes was originally scored for a chamber group and even when orchestrated uses a fairly small orchestra. It uses klezmer style music and has an important part for a solo clarinet, who here was foregrounded like a soloist. It was fun, but slight.
The piano concerto I thought I didn’t know at all – though in fact the memorable first melody I’ve definitely heard before. There’s a great deal of sound and fury and I wasn’t really sure where it was all going – this includes a massive piano cadenza which seemed to last half the first movement, Levitt raging up and down the keyboard…..the last movement had a folky tune – maybe connected with the first movement’s opening – which was appealingly simple after all the noise, and as a whole the last movement is perhaps a more traditional ‘piano concerto’ sound. But all in all this work and its emotional trajectory was opaque to me, though it’s clear the demands on the soloist are prodigious, and Levit was more than fully up to them. As an encore Levit played a piece of Schumann – perhaps from Kinderszenen – which was refreshingly spare and quiet after its predecessor, though some RFH overhead speakers gave some odd blurts of feedback at intervals.
Cinderella I know better, and I once heard a very memorable performance of the complete ballet by Gergiev and the LSO at the Proms. The lovely thing here was Fischer narrating the links between the 10 extracts played in splendidly accented avuncular English. There were some famous moments – the knitting stepsisters, the big waltz of the Prince and Cinderella, the moment when the clocks strike 12 and the final apotheosis – among the pieces chosen but also some less we’ll known ones (and sometimes mildly tedious). It didn’t seem the best selection from the work, on the whole.
Prokofiev wouldn’t, one might have thought, play to this orchestra’s considerable strengths – the big waltz in Cinderella for Prince and Cinderella was about the sole piece in which their gloriously rich string sound was displayed. But throughout I was impressed by the balance and precision of the playing – some incredibly clear and delicate flute playing, for instance, and I was particularly impressed by the sonority of the brass (some wonderful rasping sounds). The encore was the Gavotte from the Classical Symphony, which again highlighted the richness and warmth of the strings.
Although there have been lots of grumbles about the RFH’s acoustics, sitting in the balcony I thought – how much better than the Barbican….. The hall was maybe 70% full – surprisingly small given the eminence of the performers.
John's musical journey 