Kissin, LPO, Neeme Järvi, Royal Festival Hall | reviews, news & interviews
Kissin, LPO, Neeme Järvi, Royal Festival Hall
Kissin, LPO, Neeme Järvi, Royal Festival Hall
Joyous Suk and the best New World ever out-charm a great pianist
Wednesday, 06 October 2010
Neeme Järvi: Easy mastery that lifts the familiarTilt Veermäe; Kissin image below c F Broeder/EMI
"Well, Kissin's the star of the show," opined the fatuous gentleman who rolled in late to my row after the first piece on the programme. Possibly not, I wanted to snap back, in the light of that very fine pianist's current erratic form. But in any case this celebrity-hunter had just missed one of the great conductors working effortless miracles of charm on Josef Suk's Scherzo fantastique, the extended lollipop lilt of which could quickly pall in lesser hands.
"Well, Kissin's the star of the show," opined the fatuous gentleman who rolled in late to my row after the first piece on the programme. Possibly not, I wanted to snap back, in the light of that very fine pianist's current erratic form. But in any case this celebrity-hunter had just missed one of the great conductors working effortless miracles of charm on Josef Suk's Scherzo fantastique, the extended lollipop lilt of which could quickly pall in lesser hands.
He encouraged lower strings to project a jazzy cross-rhythm in the finale of a Dvořák New World I hardly recognised as the Ninth Symphony
Explore topics
Share this article
Add comment
The future of Arts Journalism
You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!
We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d
And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more Classical music
Rajakesar, Selaocoe, The Hermes Experiment, Wigmore Hall review - a joyful, fascinating laboratory of noise
Celebrating the avant-garde through different cultures
Classical CDs: Vitamins, kings and magic spells
A neglected ballet score, romantic piano concertos and contemporary British music
Kavakos, Philharmonia, Blomstedt, RFH review - a supreme valediction forbidding mourning
Nonagenarian conductor provides the flow, his players the passion, in Mahler's Ninth
Perianes, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Payare, Barbican review - elegance and drama but not enough bite
Often dynamic Venezuelan conductor misses the darkness of the 'Symphonie fantastique'
La Serenissima, Wigmore Hall review - an Italian menu to savour
Tasty Baroque discoveries, tastefully delivered
Roman Rabinovich, Wigmore Hall review - full tone in four styles
Fascinating Haydn, Debussy and Schumann, odd Beethoven
Wyn, Dwyer, McAteer, RSNO & Choirs, Diakun, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - ebullient but bitty
‘Carmina Burana’ is fun in parts, but Langer’s ‘Dong’ doesn’t flow
Gerhardt, BBC Philharmonic, Chauhan, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - from grief to peace
Anna Clyne, Shostakovich and Richard Strauss tell us about loss, struggle and healing
Bach Brandenburg Concertos, OAE, QEH review - forever young
Zest, dash and fun in rejuvenated favourites
First Person: Alec Frank-Gemmill on reasons for another recording of the Mozart horn concertos
On ignoring the composer's 'Basta, basta!' above the part for the original soloist
Andrej Power, LSO, Mäkelä, Barbican review - singing, shrieking rites of darkness and light
Radical masterpieces by Sibelius and Stravinsky have never sounded more extraordinary
Mailley-Smith, Piccadilly Sinfonietta, St Mary-le-Strand review - music in a resurgent venue
Neglected London church now the home of a vibrant concert series
Comments
...