Concert Review: Swimming Against the Tide of Protest

The Mariinsky Orchestra (with protestors) returns to Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen 

A sea of notes: Valery Gergiev (left) and Denis Matsuev at play.
Photo by Denis Matsuev © 2016 personal collection of the artist. 

A visit from Valery Gergiev is always an occasion for celebration...and for protest. The conductor and his Mariinsky Orchestra were met at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday by applause inside the historic venue, while the sidewalk outside the lobby filled with placard-carrying citizens, objecting the close ties between Mr. Gergiev and Vladimir Putin, the current president of the Russian Federation. However, there were no politics inside the great hall this night, only a program of 20th century Russian music.

Concert Review: Rushing Into the Stratosphere

The Mariinsky Orchestra with Denis Matsuev at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The pianist Denis Matsuev returned to Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night.
Photo © Matsuev.com

The second of the Mariinsky Orchestra's two concerts this week at Carnegie Hall was in some ways similar to the first.. Outside, a dozen protesters appeared again, chanting slogans about music director Valery Gergiev and his close connection with the current government of Russia. Inside, cameras were mounted in the rear of the parquet and on stage left to capture Mr. Gergiev and his forces, in the first digital broadcast of an orchestral concert from Carnegie Hall on Medici.TV.

Concert Review: Life During Wartime

Valery Gergiev conducts Shostakovich at Carnegie Hall
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The effects of war: Stalingrad in 1943 after the battle.
Image © 1943 RIAN Archive, licensed through Wikimedia Commons.

The protesters were absent on Friday night, as the Mariinsky Orchestra offered the second of three concerts at Carnegie Hall under the baton of music director Valery Gergiev. Friday's concert was an all-Shostakovich program, with music director Valery Gergiev choosing to highlight two very different works.

The Concerto for Trumpet, Piano and Strings (also in the catalogue as Piano Concerto No. 1) and the Symphony No. 8 stand ten years apart. (About the only thing they have in common is their key signature: C minor.) The concerto is a youthful, early work with the same manic energy that fills his opera The Nose. The Eighth is a war symphony, written in a safe haven deep in Russia as the Nazis advance was finally halted at the year-long Battle of Stalingrad.

Concert Review: The Leadership Gap

Valery Gergiev conducts Brahms at Lincoln Center.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Valery Gergiev led the London Symphony Orchestra on Wednesday night at Avery Fisher Hall.

The London Symphony Orchestra are one of England's most prominent, an ensemble known for its lush, vibrant string sound, powerful brass and precise approach to music making. However, on Wednesday night's concert at Avery Fisher Hall, the second of two Lincoln Center performances devoted to the music of Johannes Brahms, those qualities were dimmed by the conducting of current LSO Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev.

Balance problems were audible from the opening bars of the Piano Concerto No. 1. The stern opening theme sounded blurred, the familiar pauses slightly out of "whack." Those issues persisted as the theme moved around the orchestra and developed. At the first repetition of the tutti (just before the entry of the piano soloist) a clamor of many voices replaced Brahms' mighty shout.

Pianist Denis Matsuev was better, playing the complicated, and fully integrated solo part with power and precision. The bear-like Siberian pianist proved himself a sensitive, lyric artist as he integrated himself into the orchestral fabric, bursting forth in flourishes of melody and an occasional flash of brilliant prestidigitation.