31st August 2024
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom
SCHUMANN Piano Concerto
SMETANA Má vlast
Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko (conductor)
To celebrate Smetana 200, Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko brought his opus magnum "Má vlast" to the Proms. 19th century Bohemian nationalism, six tone poems back-to-back lasting over 75 minutes, am I that interested? Not really, to be honest, but it's all about the joy of hearing one of the best orchestras in the world grinding their way through these masterfully orchestrated musical paintings. You know something special was going to happen as soon as the harp duet hit at the beginning of "Vyšehrad", and the overcrowded and smelly RAH became the most beautiful place on Earth when the glorious BPO strings sang the famous tune of "Vltava" over the magical winds. "Šárka" had some intense, dramatic moments depicting women slaughtering drugged men and the odd, quiet strings fugue in "Z českých luhů a hájů" was very effective live. Petrenko has this immense skill to instantaneously shape and mould the orchestral sound to his will and there is nothing quite like the golden BPO sound so it's worth the money just to experience that. Then the piece went on for too long and the audience's concentration waned during the solemn and militant "Tábor"-"Blaník" pair. If you enjoy big, deep brass playing, there's much to offer, but it didn't stop streams of people walking out halfway. Couldn't blame them because the first half was a questionable Schumann "Piano Concerto". The Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson is someone DG PR has tried to force down people's throat in recent years. Granted, I do enjoy his disciplined, soul-searching and haunting Bach in small doses, such as the transcribed organ sonata encore tonight and his award-winning album, but the same approach does not work on a Romantic concerto. Schumann's polyrhythms are fascinating but they don't need to be emphasised like a Bach fugue. It felt like he was playing to a metronome and you ended up having Cyborg Eusebius and the Florestanator sending love messages in binary code and if I were Clara I would just elope with Brahms. In happier news, it was announced that a lady in the audience celebrated her 100th birthday tonight. She got as large an applause as the BPO. It was lovely.
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