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Concert Roundup
ESTONIAN-born conductor Neeme Jarvi might be "one of the world's most sought-after conductors," but his debut with the IPO was not only disappointing, but disturbing.
He started promisingly with Grieg's Two Norwegian Airs Op. 60 for string orchestra. The next item, Bartok's Concerto for two Pianos, Orchestra and Percussion proved a serious stumbling block. The concerto is a revised version of the sonata for two pianos and percussion, which is one of Bartok's masterpieces, and in all aspects preferable to the messy, dense orchestral version.
Though he had as soloists two excellent pianists - Boris Berman and Alexei Lubimov - and two IPO percussionists, Gideon Steiner and Alon Bor, who all gave a superior performance, the concerto was blurred in detail, opaque in texture and sound and occasionally lacking the necessary sharpness of the rhythmic profile. Often the performance even lacked a clear indication of interpretative direction.
Tchaikovsky's "Fourth" was an even greater disappointment. Rather than moderating Tchaikovsky's populistic appeal, he emphasized it, giving the audience what it perhaps expected: an overdose of sound, of brass, of bombast and finally the big, applause-winning bang.
Mann Auditorium, December 9.
Benjamin Bar-Am
GERMAN...