National Philharmonic of Russia

Just attended an afternoon concert with Vladimir Spivakov conducting the National Philharmonic of Russia at the Music Hall. For an orchestra that evidently hasn't been around a long time, this group sounded fantastic. This might have been the smoothest sounding orchestra I've heard in a long time. They opened with Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, and I thought that I've never heard a more lush version. Plus, there were the pair of college students sitting right in front of me that probably could have just shared the same seat. The girl must have had some condition that required the boy to keep at least one hand on her at all times. In fact, when he moved his left hand from her bare knee, she took his right hand and put it back on her knee. It was adorable. Except for the smacking kisses. And the hideous shell necklace with a ring attached that he wore. And the fact that they kept it up through all of the following piece, Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Adorable no more, they began to sicken me.

Fortunately, onstage Olga Kern was knocking the Rhapsody out of there. Olga was quite a striking figure as she entered the stage in her slinky rrrrrrrred dress. I thought she was quite a dynamic performer. Posture may not have been her strong point, but it was fun and engaging to watch her hands even when they weren't playing (which isn't very often in this piece) as she kept them aloft, almost posing for a hand lotion photo shoot, following particularly busy passage. At the very end, she actually rose off the piano bench to finish the last couple of bars in a half-standing position.

In other words, I loved her playing. The orchestra was just as lush, if not more so than before, in this piece. Perhaps too much. I could have stood just a bit more bite and passion in a few key moments. And this goes for the final piece on the program, Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances. As rich and lush as a lot of Rachmaninoff is, it also needs some visceral passion. I thought both Rachmaninoff pieces needed this. But still it was a gorgeous thing to hear. Really marvelous. Plus, the audience really seemed to respond to everything. Olga gave us one encore. And after the Symphonic Dances, Vladimir and his friends gave us three showcase encores: 2 excerpts from Swan Lake and one from Kachaturian, I believe. The orchestra seemed to enjoy playing these war horses and seemed like they were really having a good time.

I noted that the orchestra members covered quite an age range – from apparent veterans to a couple that looked like college kids. And quite a few women, too. I'd say over half the violins were women. I only mention all this because I've seen some European orchestras that were almost all men or had a much narrower range in age. I just think it's interesting.

Three odd concert things:
• At one point, Olga was so hunched over the keyboard so far, that it truly looked like her fingers were going to get tangled up in her hair.
• During the last movement of the Symphonic Dances, a man who looked like Leonid Brezhnev and was seated on the other side of the older women sitting next to me, leaned over to her and whispered, "We should have left at intermission." I hate him still.
• Check out the pic of Spivakov. For the longest time I couldn't figure out what the hell he was wearing. He had a tux on, like all of the orchestra's men. But unlike all the black bowtie-wearing guys, it really looked like from my second row balcony seat, that his shirt was open/unbuttoned with no tie. At first I thought he had on a crooked, weird white tie – I mean it was hard to catch a glance. Ninety-five percent of the time he had his back to us, afterall. But now I see in all his press photos, this high collar, no tie thing, is his look. I'm sure it looks just smashing close up, but from the balcony, it sure looked like he was going for the casual Sunday look.