Stravinsky : Circus Polka
Tchaikovsky : Piano Concerto No. 1 (Igor Levit, piano)
Prokofiev : Symphony No. 1 "Classical"
Stravinsky : Divertimento - Suite from Le Baiser de la Fée
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
James Feddeck
A last minute change brought the young American conductor James Feddeck to the podium for this concert of all-Russian music, and with no change of repertory from the advertised programme. It was therefore not altogether surprising that there should be a rough patch or two; what was impressive that it was limited to Stravinsky's brief Circus Polka, and barely detracted from the overall, and entirely suitable impression of raucous good-humour left by the piece.
At any rate, that five-minute opener was quickly forgotten in the impact made by the Tchaikovsky Concerto. To call at least the first movement idiosyncratic would be putting it mildly. The orchestra came in with its usual fanfare, but instead of the bold stride of piano chords under a sweeping statement of the opening theme (that disappears after ten minutes never to return), Mr. Levit made his entrance positively discreetly, as if to imply that really, there was no need for all this rowdy behaviour! This impression of being wrong-footed continued throughout the first movement, with some very marked pulling-about of tempi, unexpected dynamics, and a tendency from Mr. Levit to use the sustaining pedal in order to increase the piano's resonance, resulting too frequently in mushed harmonics on some of the more virtuosic passages of double octaves, for example.
It's certainly the first time I've ever enjoyed the second and third movements more than the first, in this work. I got the impression that Mr. Levit was trying too hard to just do something different with an admittedly very famous piece of music. However, where his efforts didn't strike me as successful in the first movement, it was a different story in the second, which can occasionally seem banal. Here, the altered timing became gracefully handled rubato, the pedalling more restrained, and the interplay with the orchestra better balanced, resulting also in some lovely interplay that really brought out orchestral colours. The statements of the Andantino theme from the solo flute, and then from the front desk of the cellos stood out beautifully, as did the theme of the Prestissimo from the whole of the cello section. The last movement was given the most straightforward delivery, far less quirky than the first, briskly paced but with enough breadth where it mattered.
That Mr. Levit is a pianist to be reckoned with, irrespective of his views on the Tchaikovsky, was amply proven when he favoured us with the Liszt transcription of the "Liebestod" from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde as an encore. There are generally two approaches to Liszt's Wagner transcriptions - the operatic, and the pianistic. They're equally valid, it's a matter of how the interpreter feels them. Levit leans towards the pianistic; this wasn't the kind of singing interpretation I heard from Llyr Williams 18 months ago, but a more calculated one, that yet possessed a great deal of expressivity. There was virtually none of the over-pedalling heard in the Tchaikovsky here (and goodness knows it's easy to over-pedal in Liszt!), no blurring of harmonies, of arpeggios or the tremolos and trills that are such a substantial part of this piece, but a clarity and rapt concentration such as to dispel any negative impressions left over from the concerto.
The "Classical" Symphony was delivered crisply, maybe a touch bland to start with, but gathering sparkle as it went along. I thought the 'hesitation' on the theme of the Gavotte over-exaggerated, but the Finale bowled along with real fizz to it.
Le Baiser de la Fée is another of those ballets whose music has never found a wholly successful choreographic counterpart. Stravinsky, ever keen to expand the possibilities of his music commercially as well as artistically, soon devised a suite from his 1928 ballet score for concert performance, and called it Divertimento. Even Balanchine, certainly the choreographer most in tune with Stravinsky's music (and if he could persuade the composer to write a polka for elephants, there had to have been a real affinity there!), abandoned his version of the narrative ballet for an abstract piece using the Divertimento.
Part of the problem might have been that choreographers (and some conductors too) have had problems deciding whether they're working with Stravinsky, or with Tchaikovsky. Stravinsky created the piece as an homage to Tchaikovsky, and mined the older composer's songs and piano miniatures extensively for his score. Sometimes you do indeed hear Tchaikovsky very clearly, but at other times, there's no mistaking Stravinsky's distinctive voice. Feddeck chose the sensible route here, and just let it play as it needed to. Without a narrative that requires illumination, the music can simply play as abstract numbers, though with a clearly audible dance basis, whether it's in the hearty, rustic oom-pah of the Danses suisses, or the Pas de deux, which is quite clearly modelled on the grand classical style. (Though quite why Stravinsky called the second movement Swiss Dances escapes me. They sound a lot closer to the cheerful cacophony of the Novgorod Easter Fair, the setting for the outer scenes of Petrushka.) The orchestra displayed an impressive range of colour and dynamic, by turns romantically lush or brassily spiky, negotiating the stylistic about-turns with simple ease, rhythmically alert, and bringing the evening to an exhilarating close.
[Next : 28th April]
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