Sounds for a Samovar: Carnegie Hall Russian Night

Matthew Murphy for The New York Times

Mariinsky Orchestra: The pianist Daniil Trifonov performing at Carnegie Hall as part of the hall's 120th anniversary celebration.
By JAMES R. OESTREICH Published: October 13, 2011

For all the attention being lavished on Tchaikovskys appearances in the festival that opened Carnegie Hall in 1891 as a pretext for the halls 120th anniversary celebration, Carnegie has made no point of reviving the works the composer conducted, which included his Marche Solennelle, his Third Orchestral Suite and two of his a cappella choruses. But willy-nilly, one of those works did appear on Tuesday evening, when Daniil Trifonov played Tchaikovskys First Piano Concerto with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra in the hall. Not that the concerto ever suffers neglect there. Indeed, Stephen Hough will offer a reprise on Oct. 27 with Osmo Vanska and the Minnesota Orchestra. Still, these were performers you wanted to hear in this work: the Mariinsky for its Russian sound and style; Mr. Trifonov as the winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in June. Lanky and baby-faced at 20, Mr. Trifonov, who gave anacclaimed recital at Mannes College the New School for Music in July, is a phenom, no question. He can play octave runs fast; faster, perhaps, than anyone this side of Lang Lang, sometimes faster than the speed of sound. They go by in a blur. But the point of the octaves in this work is not so much speed as command, as Yevgeny Kissin showed brilliantly in a concert with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony that opened the

Carnegie season in 1995. In the first movement especially, Mr. Trifonovs performance often seemed frenetic rather than magisterial. And he tended to offset extremely fast playing with extremely slow, more maundering than meditative: a manic-depressive approach that might be appropriate to Tchaikovskys Pathtique Symphony but not to this vital concerto. Mr. Gergiev and Mr. Trifonov took time adjusting to each others tempos, and in one early handoff from piano to orchestra Mr. Gergiev was slow to pick up the thread. In response to a clamorous standing ovation (this review being decidedly a minority report), Mr. Trifonov played two solo encores: Chopins Grande Valse Brillante (Op. 18) and Liszts tude in G sharp minor (La Campanella). Here as in the later movements of the concerto, though still in bravura mode, he showed greater sensitivity, taste and imagination. Mr. Gergiev and the orchestra finished their weeklong stand in mostly fine style with three movements from Prokofievs Romeo and Juliet, Shostakovichs First Symphony and two encores of their own: Liadovs Baba-Yaga and because you can never have too much Tchaikovsky the Polonaise from Eugene Onegin, repeated from the opening concerton Oct 5.

Defintions 1. A cappela without instrumental accompaniment 2. Octave a series of eight notes occupying the interval between (and including) two
notes, one having twice or half the frequency of vibration of the other.

3. Maundering to move or act in a dreamy manner 4. Conceto a musical composition for a solo instrument or instruments accompanied by
an orchestra, esp. one conceived on a relatively large scale.

5. Bravura - great technical skill and brilliance shown in a performance or activity