tue 19/03/2024

Kissin, LPO, Neeme Järvi, Royal Festival Hall | reviews, news & interviews

Kissin, LPO, Neeme Järvi, Royal Festival Hall

Kissin, LPO, Neeme Järvi, Royal Festival Hall

Joyous Suk and the best New World ever out-charm a great pianist

Neeme Järvi: Easy mastery that lifts the familiarTilt Veermäe; Kissin image below c F Broeder/EMI

"Well, Kissin's the star of the show,"  opined the fatuous gentleman who rolled in late to my row after the first piece on the programme. Possibly not, I wanted to snap back, in the light of that very fine pianist's current erratic form. But in any case this celebrity-hunter had just missed one of the great conductors working effortless miracles of charm on Josef Suk's Scherzo fantastique, the extended lollipop lilt of which could quickly pall in lesser hands.

"Well, Kissin's the star of the show,"  opined the fatuous gentleman who rolled in late to my row after the first piece on the programme. Possibly not, I wanted to snap back, in the light of that very fine pianist's current erratic form. But in any case this celebrity-hunter had just missed one of the great conductors working effortless miracles of charm on Josef Suk's Scherzo fantastique, the extended lollipop lilt of which could quickly pall in lesser hands.

He encouraged lower strings to project a jazzy cross-rhythm in the finale of a Dvořák New World I hardly recognised as the Ninth Symphony

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You should have come to Cardiff - the soloist was Jean Effam Bavouzet in Schumann Piano Concerto. A sunny gallic performance with Debussy for an encore

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