RSNO, 08/10/11

Debussy : Images Rachmaninoff : Piano Concerto No 3 (Nikolai Lugansky) Royal Scottish National Orchestra Stéphane Denève
To mark his final year with the RSNO, Denève's concert programming this season is marking in general the Auld Alliance (the historic Franco-Scottish relationship) and in particular Debussy's 150th anniversary. Not that he really needed any excuse to play us French music; he's been doing so, usually pretty successfully, for several years now. However, this was not one of the more convincing attempts. At the start, Denève announced that Images would be performed with Iberia last - of which I completely approve, authenticity be damned - and that next week they are going to be recording it, as part of a complete Debussy orchestral works project. If that's so, I hope the recording session is more vital than tonight's performance. Not that there was anything egregiously wrong with the playing, but the reading was heavy-handed and a little dull, and there were tiny glitches in tempo in Iberia that were a constant niggle to me. An inauspicious start to the evening. However, I had booked my ticket because of Nikolai Lugansky, who is one of the few pianists I would go hear play Chopsticks, never mind Rachmaninoff 3. Despite considerable familiarity with the concerto, I realised during the interval that I've never actually seen it played, and noted with some amusement (at my own expense) how despite the piece's reputation as a behemoth, the orchestral disposition is not any larger than the average late-19th C symphony, and considerably smaller than that required for the Debussy. In fact, the whole thing turned out to be a bit of a revelation, and from the moment Lugansky stated the opening theme of the 1st movement, quiet and confidential, I and everyone else present was riveted. What became immediately apparent is that while Rach 3 may be a giant of a concerto, in fact it is a surprisingly intimate piece, something many recordings seem to negate. It's the concerto equivalent of Verdi'a Aida, which everyone remembers for its Triumphal March, elephants and all, but in fact is a series of very focused, very intense interactions between the characters. Here, Lugansky was in dialogue with the orchestra, with occasional moments of instrospective reverie. The balance was near-perfect, flexible and expansive with the characteristic ebb and flow of Rachmaninoff's music, his collusion with the orchestra comfortable without complacency, while his playing flowed, clear and lyrical, rich with nostalgia without ever descending into mawkishness. I won't say he made it look easy; I doubt that's possible with this concerto. However, I've often found the piece to be somewhat bombastic, but this performance was the perfect demonstration of just why its reputation as one of the great concertos is fully deserved. As an encore, and to complete the loop, Lugansky played Debussy's 1st Arabesque, light-fingered and rippling, luminous and fresh, and as outstanding in its modest way as the Rachmaninoff concerto.