Valery Gergiev’s “Tchaikovsky on fire”

Completing its tour of towns and cities in the USA after their dazzling concerts at Carnegie Hall, Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra performed Tchaikovsky’s symphonies at the Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa, the Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley and the Northridge California State University’s Valley Performing Arts Center. The final American city on the tour route was Seattle.

Los Angeles Times: “Gergiev’s Tchaikovsky was on fire … Gergiev gets it and made sure we got it too – in the solar plexus.” (Music review: Gergiev in Orange County and the Valley)

“One thing for which Gergiev’s long tenure at the Mariinsky will long be remembered is his advocacy for neglected Russian works.” Gergiev well deserves praise for restoring “underrated Rimsky-Korsakov, Musorgsky, Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev operas” to the repertoire.” “I would expect that with his Mariinsky cycle, Tchaikovsky will, once more, be a six-symphony composer.” Gergiev’s performances of Tchaikovsky brought “every detail to the surface, giving it weight.” “Only an exorcism could have chased the composer’s poltergeist from the room.” (Music review: Gergiev & Mariinsky play Tchaikovsky at Segerstrom)

At the Segerstrom Hall, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra’s concert opened the fifty-eighth season of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County in southern California. This event was also notable for the fact that five years ago in October 2006 the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra opened the venue.

Orange County Register: “The orchestra, of course, has a well earned reputation as one of the world’s best and it plays with a zest and style that was evident here.” “In an age when national styles in orchestral playing are disappearing, the Mariinsky still sounds like what we think a Russian orchestra sounds like,” in which “the strings apply their bows and vibrato generously, and play with a great unity of method. The sound is powerful but compact and there is a thrilling buzz in the timbre. The woodwinds have a brightness and edge and play out expressively like soloists. The brass snarls, the percussion takes few prisoners.”

The Daily Californian: “The notes emanating from the string section of the Mariinsky Orchestra danced through the air of Zellerbach Hall like ballerinas showing off their most stylish spins and twirls.” “The Russians played without a stammer or a moment of hesitation, with the technique and passion for which they are famed.”

The San Francisco Chronicle commented that Tchaikovsky’s “Fourth Symphony (was) marked by luxuriant phrasing and crisp rhythmic attacks.”

San Francisco Classical Voice: “From the ardent opening of the first movement to a thunderous, terrifying climax of the fourth, the E-Minor Fifth held the listeners in its grip.”

Comments on the concerts at Carnegie Hall continue to come in.

“In terms of sheer, thrilling unpredictability,” wrote Susan Hall on the portal Berkshire Fine Arts, “a Gergiev concert is like ‘sitting in the seat of a racing car rounding a hairpin bend and then holding the road again.’ The resulting rush is experienced by the audience and the musicians.” The audience at the hall was convinced that maestro Gergiev “has a strong sense of Russia’s bottomless soul. He works hard to achieve the sound he wants in a particular phrase like the horn solo that opens the Second Symphony.” “I am a musician,” Gergiev notes, “as the orchestra is too. We are equals, but I am at the center.”

The New York Times published a further review of the concert featuring Daniil Trivonov, commenting that “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” had been chosen for this evocative programme. James R. Oestrich refers to Trifonov as “a phenomenon, no question. He can play octave runs fast; faster, perhaps, than anyone this side of Lang Lang, sometimes faster than the speed of sound.” In response to the insistent standing ovations, Trifonov performed two encore solos in which he showed “great sensitivity, taste and imagination.”

Yesterday, 20 October, saw the opening of the Canadian leg of the major North American tour of the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra in Vancouver under the baton of Valery Gergiev.

During the Canadian leg of the tour Valery Gergiev will be conducting the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. The tour comes to an end on 23 October.