It's a truism to say that a concert is more than the sum of its parts. Sunday afternoon at Orchestra Hall, though, the individual parts varied greatly from each other, and that was not a bad thing. The Russian-Ossetian maestro Valery Gergiev has brought majesty and celebrity back into conducting as he has circled the globe advocating the music of Russia and the former Soviet Union. Almost pridefully unpredictable, he appeared here remarkably (for him) rested and calm. The London Symphony Orchestra, Gergiev's second ensemble after those in his St. Petersburg home base, is one of the world's finest; it also lacks the cockiness or gender and race discrimination that mar some of its European rivals. The Russian-Jewish pianist Vladimir Feltsman, a former Soviet refusenik, has spent the last 20 years trying to establish a career that matches the drama of his pre-U.S. struggles for freedom. And then there was the material of the all-Prokofiev program Sunday: his earliest (the Classical, 1917) and his most bombastic (No. 5, 1944) symphonies, and the hodgepodge of his Piano Concerto No. 2 (1913; revised 1924). Music lovers will continue to debate the merits of Prokofiev for some time. When I happened to post the simple phrase "perplexed by Prokofiev" on my facebook page Sunday, I was hit with some 30 replies from all over the world. My saying that, with a few exceptions, he was much better suited to program music -- operas, ballets, film scores -- and chamber works than he was to symphonies and piano concertos is not going to change any minds. Gergiev gave the controversial composer superb presentations. The Classical, a college dorm room favorite, was bright and brisk and alive, taking Prokofiev at his word that Mozart was his ideal here. With the transparent and easily worn virtuosity of the LSO, the Fifth Symphony, with its many mood swings and eclectic combination of "deeply personal" and "war" music, was similarly taken seriously, and therefore, for me, but not for most of the audience, shown to be essentially an empty vessel. Feltsman knows the G minor concerto, with its heavy helpings of Rachmaninoff served side-by-side with Prokofiev's trademark "modern" dissonances and themes, is a bit schizophrenic. His playing in each style was strong and assured, but he never truly integrated the two sound worlds. Feltsman offered a very Russian Bach as an encore: Alexander Ziloti's transcription, Prelude in B minor. Gergiev and the LSO gave us the sprightly March from Prokofiev's opera The Love for Three Oranges, which had its world première in Chicago in 1921, and was also the theme of both the radio and television series, The FBI. Normally I envy New Yorkers the multi-concert residencies of great touring orchestras. In this case, even with Gergiev and the LSO, I'm not unhappy to miss four programs of the complete Prokofiev symphonies over this next week at Lincoln Center.Here is my Tuesday, March 24 Chicago Sun-Times and suntimes.com review of the Sunday, March 22, 2009 all-Prokofiev program performed by Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra with pianist Vladimir Feltsman at Orchestra Hall.
Principal conductor Valery Gergiev rehearses the London Symphony Orchestra at Chicago's Orchestra Hall on Sunday. Photo courtesy LSO on Tour website.
Gergiev presents Prokofiev in most flattering light
Russian conductor puts superb spin on varied compositions
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