RUSSIAN conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky remains as idiosyncratic as ever in his 77th year, grand master of all he surveys and an uncanny knack of letting music speak for itself without forcing in any direction.
He lets it unfold unhurriedly without dynamic or tempo extremes, witness the Sibelius Fifth Symphony which some may say was slow – not as slow as Beethoven's Egmont Overture earlier! – but can anyone deny the majesty, the broad images of a Finnish sp
ring on a dramatic landscape?
The RPO's playing was mature and masterly, though the string and woodwind sections do not have the warmth of their Hallé counterparts, but the brass play with more subtlety.
Rozhdestvensky out-Klempered Klemperer in Egmont, a granite-hewn opening signalling a very a broad performance. Even the finale was not the headlong rush it usually is, but the whole not short on drama.
Viktoria Postnikova, pigtail falling below her piano stool seat, delivered a characterful, un-Lisztian Chopin Second Piano Concerto. Not for her the virtuosic vivacity favoured by many present-day pianists.
Light and shade, subtle phrasing, and a few bum notes, were the order of the day with a beautifully-shaped larghetto and measured mazurka in the last movement before the finale had a satisfying quixotic touch.
A leisurely cruise round Fingal's Cave in Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture completed the concert.
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