LSO/Gergiev tonight at 7.30

[Hornspieler]

LSO - Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky
Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutes
First broadcast:Tuesday 23 September 2014 Live from the Barbican Hall, London
Presented by Martin Handley

Valery Gergiev conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in an all-Russian programme, with two symphonies by Prokofiev, together with Tchaikovsky's Piano concerto no.2. Denis Matsuev is the soloist.

Prokofiev: Symphony No 1 ('Classical')
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No 2

8.35pm - Interval

8:55pm - Part 2
Prokofiev: Symphony No 5

Denis Matsuev (piano)
London Symphony Orchestra
conductor Valery Gergiev

Since winning the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition at the age of 23, Matsuev has established an international reputation as a pianist in the great Russian tradition. This programme frames Tchaikovsky's lyrical Second Piano Concerto with two symphonic masterpieces by Prokofiev, the witty, Haydnesque 'Classical', and the ever-popular Fifth, Prokofiev's moving wartime tribute to 'the grandeur of the human spirit'.

This should be interesting. Note the soloist and who is conducting!

HS

[Roehre]

And who are the violin and 'cello soloists in the 2nd mvt of the Tchaikovsky, or are we using the cut version?

[Richard Tarleton]

This should be interesting. Note the soloist

HS

Indeed -

A word of advice to the conductor from EH...

[Hornspieler]

LSO - Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky
Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutes
First broadcast:Tuesday 23 September 2014 Live from the Barbican Hall, London
Presented by Martin Handley

Valery Gergiev conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in an all-Russian programme, with two symphonies by Prokofiev, together with Tchaikovsky's Piano concerto no.2. Denis Matsuev is the soloist.

Prokofiev: Symphony No 1 ('Classical')
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No 2

8.35pm - Interval

8:55pm - Part 2
Prokofiev: Symphony No 5

Denis Matsuev (piano)
London Symphony Orchestra
conductor Valery Gergiev

Since winning the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition at the age of 23, Matsuev has established an international reputation as a pianist in the great Russian tradition. This programme frames Tchaikovsky's lyrical Second Piano Concerto with two symphonic masterpieces by Prokofiev, the witty, Haydnesque 'Classical', and the ever-popular Fifth, Prokofiev's moving wartime tribute to 'the grandeur of the human spirit'.

This should be interesting. Note the soloist and who is conducting!

HS

In case my remark re Conductor and Soloist is misinterpreted, I have a TV recording of the same two artists playing this concerto with the Marinsky Orchestra. (Sky Arts 2)

Absolutely magnificent - I have never heard it played better.

The Violin and Cello solos (AKA the teashop trio) were played by the respective section leaders. I would expect the same would be true with the LSO.

HS

[Richard Tarleton]

Sorry, thought you were anticipating a re-run of Qatar SO

[pastoralguy]

Is it just me or is the sound level very low? I keep having to turn the volume up...

Terrific 'Classical' symphony! That was some speed in the finale...

[DracoM]

Do you think Martin Handley asked VG about his support for Zsar Vladimir?

[Hornspieler]

Sorry, thought you were anticipating a re-run of Qatar SO

God Forbid!

HS

[Nick Armstrong]

Note the soloist ...!

HS

Your friend from the other week, Hornsey!!

The first movement of the Tch. PC2 is a terrible load of banal old claptrap imvho but the second movement is engaging and I think could be taken for one of Elgar's more sentimental but felicitous pieces. Doesn't sound like Tchaikovsky at all, to me, which is probably why I like it

Too many people around to listen to the 3rd movement.

[Hornspieler]

Your friend from the other week, Hornsey!!

The first movement of the Tch. PC2 is a terrible load of banal old claptrap imvho but the second movement is engaging and I think could be taken for one of Elgar's more sentimental but felicitous pieces. Doesn't sound like Tchaikovsky at all, to me, which is probably why I like it

Too many people around to listen to the 3rd movement.

Very few solo pianists elect to play it, pouring scorn upon it as an excuse not to make the attempt.

This was as I expected. A magnificent concert.



Well, I did give you a few broad hints, didn't I?

HS

[Petrushka]

Is it just me or is the sound level very low? I keep having to turn the volume up...

Terrific 'Classical' symphony! That was some speed in the finale...

No problems with sound level here (listening via Freeview) but I always miss the almighty tam-tam crashes in the first movement of the Prokofiev 5 that is such a feature of the Karajan recording. Never heard anyone else do it quite like that either live or on disc.

[Sir Velo]

Matsuev and Gergiev's obviously had flights to catch judging by the furious tempos adopted for each work on the programme. Some unpleasant split tones from the solo trumpeter in the first movement of the Prokofiev 5th rather marred the performance for me. I have an uneasy relationship with this symphony's final movement. I'm a huge Prokofiev admirer but am I alone in finding the main theme of the finale unbelievably puerile and banal? I appreciate that composers from Schubert to Shostakovich have built great symphonic edificies from seemingly trite little melodies but here Prokofiev's inspiration seriously lets him down IMO. The Sixth is a far greater work but, TBH, Prokofiev's strength lies elsewhere: in the ballets; concertos; piano sonatas and film music is where he's at his best.

[jayne lee wilson]

For me, Prokofiev's 5th is a masterpiece, and part of a great trilogy of 5,6 and 7: The Light, The Shadow, The Reflection...

I find the 5th's finale a perfect counterweight to the thunderous power and passions of the andante and adagio, sounding like a machine-gone-mad, in opposition to the more human energies of the marcato scherzo. Interesting too that there is a train in that 2nd movement, exiting the trio - a friendly, humanised machine... if there is a train in the finale, it's well off the rails!
But both the 2nd and 4th movements have a great sense of sheer fun about them, and the finale is, as you suggest, Velo, in a rich tradition of lighter finales going back at least as far as Haydn. I think it's definitely conceived as entertainment, perhaps for the last time in Prokofiev's Symphonic Cycle... (fascinating too that the 6th's finale begins in a similar fashion, but ends in catastrophe..... the shape and ending of the movement again makes it seem like a mirror to the 5th, a passage through to the dark side, like the mirror in Cocteau's Orphee...)

[kea]

The first movement of the Tch. PC2 is a terrible load of banal old claptrap imvho

It's one of my favourite loads of banal old claptrap in the repertoire The rest of the concerto is also quite good, I think I rather prefer it to Tchaikovsky's 1st.

I also think the Prokofiev 5th is a more balanced work than the 6th... if nothing in it quite equals the 6th's finale, it does make a more satisfying and entertaining whole for me as I've never found the 6th's Adagio very satisfactory. Prokofiev in "balletic" mood is more successful for me than his attempts at gravitas, though there are exceptions (e.g. the Symphony-Concerto, which is perhaps my favourite of his pieces).