St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra: Eastern Promises at Colston Hall - Review
Posted on: 2017-01-26
Our rating:
Bristol's Colston Hall was orchestrally overflowing with the sumptuous sounds of the classical Russian repertoire when the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra performed a barnstorming programme of music on Tuesday 24 January 2017.
Entitled 'Eastern Promises', the evening panned out with an exhilarating cavalcade of seminal Russian compositions by three of the country's leading exponents: Rimsky-Korsakov, Khatchaturian and Prokofiev.
As the galvanized crowd settled into their seats - postponed 15 minutes to accommodate latecomers (us included) who had been delayed by a car accident in the centre - the orchestra gracefully made their way on to the stage, the lights dimmed, silenced prevailed, conductor Yuri Temirkanov raised his hand (he didn't use a baton at all), the ensemble began, and the ensuing two hours engulfed everyone in a sea of pure orchestral bliss.
Opening with Khatchaturian's Spartacus suite, audience members of a certain vintage would have remembered Adagio of Spartacus and Phrydia as the theme famously used for the 1970s BBC series The Onedin Line; starting off quietly and slowly building to the unmistakable, sweeping, soaring theme full of sumptuous lyricism and dense, orchestral passion.
Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 led us dazzlingly to the end of the first half, pianist Nikolai Lugansky proving his utter mastery of the instrument with a heart-stopping display of deliciously stunning virtuoso ivory tinkling that perfectly encapsulated the composer's ebullience, wit, feistiness and unprecedented gift for smirk-inducing, pugnacious musical brilliance.
Scheherazade took up the entire second half, Rimsky-Korsakov's astonishing weaving of musical magic based on Oriental tales and a Persian princess reciting stories to a Sultan over a thousand and one nights to delay her impending execution. (It worked and she lived, so the story goes.)
One of the most famous and beloved masterpieces of the Russian repertoire, the orchestra absolutely nailed it; the pieces moving from The Sea and Sinbad's Ship to The Tale of the Kalendar Prince and the final, deliriously ravishing Young Prince and the Young Princess with stunning fluidity and ease, imbuing the 45-minute musical tour de force with all the powerful, teasing, seductive charm it needed whilst casting its inexorable sonic spell of beguiling magic and exoticism.
The crowd went crazy, clapping and cheering and giving the orchestra and conductor a long, thoroughly deserved standing ovation. Without doubt, St Petersburg Philharmonic is a world-class orchestra; a stunning ensemble that lives and breathes this repertoire and performs it with unbridled commitment, passion, excellence and complete understanding of every single note.
In a word: outstanding.
5/5
Article by:
Jamie is a writer, blogger, journalist, critic, film fan, soundtrack nerd and all-round Bristolian good egg. He loves the music of Philip Glass, the art of Salvador Dali, the writings of Charles Bukowksi and Hunter S Thompson, the irreverence of Harry Hill, and the timeless, straw-chomping exuberance of The Wurzels. You can sometimes find him railing against a surging tide of passing cyclists, or gorging himself senseless on the Oriental delights of a Cosmos all-you-can-eat buffet.
