Friday 16 May 2003

Down to Portsmouth yesterday for the last concert of this season. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (excellent) conducted by Alexander Polianichko. Highly enjoyable Lieutenant Kijé Suite, followed by second piano concerto (with Nikolai Demidenko as the demonic, very Russian, soloist). I greatly enjoyed watching the soloist in action – a real Russian bear, with an expressionless counternance but with immense power and, on the few occasions permitted by Prokofiev, a warm tone. The concerto was exciting, but not really something I'd care to listen to regularly. A lot of steel, a lot of brutality.
After the interval, it was back to Prokofiev, and the fifth symphony. Enjoyable, but rather a lot of Prokofiev in one dose. Might have been wiser to switch to Vaughan Williams, or Sibelius, for the final work? The orchestra played very well indeed. Polianichko looked every inch a real haunted Russian conductor, albeit with a Simon Rattle haircut.

No comments: