Gramophone – September 2019

gramophone.co.uk

RoyalAlbertHall,London,BBCRadio3 &
BBCFour
August9,11,16,18,23,25, 30 September1,6, 8
TheBBCPromsarecurrentlyinfullswing,and
asalwaysyoucanheareveryPromonBBC
Radio3. However,wethinkit’sworth
remindingyouofthismonth’sBBCFour
televisionbroadcaststoo.Thedatesareall
above,andwithinthosewe’lljustdrawyour
attentiontoa fewhighlights.Prom 40 for
instance(August16,broadcastAugust18),for
whichStephenHoughplaysQueenVictoria’s
ownpianoinMendelssohn’sPianoConcerto
No1 withtheOrchestraoftheAgeof
EnlightenmentunderAdámFischer. Also
Prom 44 (August20,broadcastAugust24)
withitsprogrammeofKoechlin,Varèseand
WaltonfromSimonRattleandtheLondon
SymphonyOrchestra;andProm 46 (August
22,broadcastAugust25)whichsees
MirgaGražinytė-TylaandtheCityof
BirminghamSymphonyOrchestrajoinedby
ShekuKanneh-MasonforElgar’sCello
Concerto.Thenourinalpointerwillbe
towardstheShanghaiSymphonyOrchestra’s
PromsdebutatProm 57 (September1,
broadcastSeptember6),LongYuconducting
theminworkstoincludeMozart’sPiano
ConcertoNo 23 withLeedsInternationalPiano

CompetitionWinnerEricLu, whois makinghis

ownPromsdebut.

bbc.co.uk/proms

KKLLucerne,ConcertHall&medici.tv

August 17 inLucerne,streamedAugust 24

Switzerland’smajorLucerneFestivalrunsfrom

August 16 toSeptember15,andhappilyoneof

itskeyconcertsis beingmadeavailablevia

medici.tv.ThisseesfestivalArtisticDirector

RiccardoChaillyconducttheFestival

Orchestraina Russianprogrammefeaturing

Rachmaninov’sPianoConcertoNo3 and

Tchaikovsky’sSymphonyNo4; andthesoloist

fortheRachmaninovcouldn’tbemore

appropriatebecauseit’sDenisMatsuev,

whomthecomposer’sgrandsonAlexander

Rachmaninovinvitedtorecordthecomposer’s

worksonRachmaninov’sownunusuallylong

Steinway,whichis stillsitsinthecomposer-

pianist’sformerhomeonLakeLucerne.

lucernefestival.ch,medici.tv

Philharmonie,Berlin&DigitalConcertHall

August 23 &24,September 8

It’sa bigseasonopeningfortheBerliner

Philharmonikerthisyear,becauseit’sinallythe

momentatwhichKirillPetrenkostandson

thepodiumasin-postChiefConductor.So

what better work with which to start than

Beethoven’s Symphony No 9, with soloists

Marlis Petersen (201920 Artist in Residence),

Elisabeth Kulman, Benjamin Bruns and

Kwangshui Youn with the Rundfunkchor

Berlin. On the irst night, the symphony is

performed in the orchestra’s Philharmonie

base, paired with Berg’s Lulu Suite with

Petersen as soloist. Then on the following

night the symphony is the stand-alone work

in a free open air concert under Berlin’s

Brandenburg Gate. This month’s other live

streamed concert then o ers something

entirely di erent: Peter Eötvös conducting

the German premiere of his own Alhambra

Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No 3 with

Isabelle Faust, paired with Xenakis’s Shaar for

large string orchestra, and Varese’s Amériques.

digitalconcerthall.com

Théâtre de Vevey, Vevey & online

August 2430

Hosted by the Swiss town of Vevey, where

pianist Clara Haskil lived from 1942 until her

death, the Clara Haskil Competition is

one of the majors for pianists, and the 2019

jury is correspondingly illustrious, with

Christian Zacharias as President, and other

judges including Aleksandar Madžar, plus the

Presenting live concert and opera performances from around the world and reviews of

archived music-making available online to stream where you want, when you want

PERFORMANCES & EVENTS

130 GRAMOPHONE SEPTEMBER 2019

Twopianocompetitions

No wonder they clap early: having

dispatched Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano

Concerto, Alexandre Kantorow has

reached the halfway point of Brahms’s

Second with a scorching account of the

Scherzo, and the sheer stamina of his

enterprise deserves a prize in itself.

Winner of both the piano gold medal and

the whole Tchaikovsky Competition

Grand Prix, the 22-year-old demonstrates

not only the audacity of youth but a clear-

A pair of young keyboard lions roaringinMoscowandBeijingastheycarryofwell-deservedgoldmedals

ARCHIVE COMPETITIONS REVIEW

sighted vision for both works, and the

temperament to carry it off.

Everyone on stage looks dead on their

feet, as well they might be, in the midst

of three days in June packed with seven

fi nalists and 14 concertos, but the State

Academic SO Evgeny Svetlanov are

marshalled with a light touch by

Vasily Petrenko, who fi nes down the

accompaniment beautifully in the piano-

trio central movement of the Tchaikovsky.

Kantorow himself is, on the evidence of

both this concert and his BIS albums,

already the fi nished article, possessed

of a marvellously elfi n touch for the

Mendelssohnian moments of phantasy in

both concertos, as well as the ability to

draw both orchestra and audience around

him in passages of quiet rapture.

By contrast the 19-year-old Tony Siqi

Yun fl ies by the seat of his pants at points

in his prizewinning performance of the

Tchaikovsky First Concerto at the

inaugural China International Music

Competition in Beijing. He’s expertly

partnered by the Philadelphia Orchestra

and Yannick Nézet-Séguin who guides

without stifl ing his more rhapsodical

fl ights of fancy. By no means note-perfect

in heavy double octaves and inclined

to lose the pulse once left to his own

devices, Siqi Yun nevertheless deserves

the crown, for his carefree abandon

when it counts, and for a sense of wonder

and spontaneity about Tchaikovsky’s

novelistic fi rst movement. Listening is a

two-way process in any truly musical

encounter, and Siqi Yun brings an

engaging modesty to the partnership with

his vastly more experienced colleagues.

Peter Quantrill

Watch for free at tch16.medici.tv/en/piano/

& http://www.medici.tv/en/concerts/china-

international-music-competition/