A Musical Heaven with Jack Cater?

I had great expectations Sunday evening. The St. Petersburg Phiharmonic Orchestra was in town! I was so afraid that the technician whom I had arranged to come to my house to upgrade my internet processing speed by my service provider would not arrive on time so that by the time he was done, I would be late for the concert. It had happened more than once. They usually overbook their technicians. But fortunately he arrived at 5 p.m., when the appointment was for 2 p.m.! Better late than never!

When I arrived at the Cultural Centre, I went to the wrong entrance. I just assumed that I would have the same seat as the one I had the previous night. Only at the entrance did I discover my mistake. But I was in time. Mr Chu booked a seat at the right hand side of the stage. It's both good and bad. It's good in that we could listen to the orchestra at really close quarters and would be able to hear even the tiniest changes in the sound of the oboes, the flutes, the clarinets, the bassoons, the horns and the tiniest pizzicato of the violin etc. It's bad in that there is less balance in the sound. We were facing the double basses and the cellos and the sound of the piano was obstructed by its front panel and the angle of the raised sound board was not coming to us in quite the right direction. But then, we got to take what we had! But we got compensated because we got the chance to see all the subtle movements of the hands and fingers of the conductor Yuri Temirkanov as he tried to coax from the orchestra those magical sounds that we heard because he was just about 15 feet to 20 feet from us. Temirkanov was the artistic director and chief conductor of the Kirov (later Marinsky Theatre) in 1976. He later worked with the Royal Philharmonic, The Dresden Philharmonic, Danish Radio Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony and then of the Bolshoi Theatre. 

The evening's programme was an all Russian affair: Rimsky Korsakov's Overture Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya written in 1905; Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, Op. 30 and finally Stravinsky's The Rites of Spring Part I The Adoration of the Earth & II the Sacrifice.

It was the first time I heard the first work but I do not know how many times I have listened to the second and third. The first work was about the story of Ferroniya a lady living in a forest with his woodman brother who met a stranger, fell in love with him and only later learned that he is Vsevolod, the son of Prince Yury of Kitezh. Their city was attacked by the Tartars and Vsevolod was killed and Fevroniya was abducted by the Tartars. She wanders through the forest, dies, magically transformed and rejoins the ghost of her husband, as foretold by a prophet-bird, to enjoy eternal life. The Overture describes her journey through the woods, communicating with the birds and beasts of the forests. In the music, the sound of birds are beautifully captured by the flute, the piccolo and the sound of the beasts by the bassoon, oboes etc. It was a most hauntingly beautiful piece of music, played with great delicacy by the orchestra.

The next piece was the highlight of the evening. The piano soloist was Denis Matsuev who won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1998 and has since played with world class orchestras in Chicago, Berlin, London, Leipzig, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Cologne, La Scala, Paris, Toulouse, Budapest, Rotterdam etc.  Rachmaninoff's No. 3 has the most dreamily romantic first movement that I ever heard. And the magic starts with the first bar, a melody which the composer traced to Russian orthodox liturgy! The Intermezzo which opens wistfully and almost contemplatively with the strings, develops some real power play in its scherzo at the end, the piano moving like wild beast with the piano being ferociously hammered to produce thunders of  notes and chords and the finale also starts with off very strongly and moves ahead in a kind of chopping and accelerating rhythm until close to the end, a little of the tenderness of the first movement is replayed, as if it were a distant reminder of what once had been, before it plunges forward again towards a fiery conclusion. Rachmaninoff has got some passages in it that matches the most romantic piano sound of a Schumann but is infinitely more powerful in other parts. When I was listening to the music, it appeared that I was no longer on earth but was bathed in the soft empyrean waves of a sonic paradise where I like to remain forever, never ever to return to earth but in the strong passages, it felt like I was being plunged right into the vortex of a raging frenzy of passion of the wildest abandon. I was not alone. The applauses lasted more than 5 minutes. We got two encores where he delighted us with his humor and dazzled us with his lightning fast fingerwork. He was simply superb!

The final piece of the music displayed the creative power of spring with exquisite vividness, its primitive bleakness, it sudden movements, its power, its delicate delights, its mystery and its magic. I never heard it like that before. Perhaps where we sat might have contributed in no small part to the immediacy of the music and the intensity of the emotions evoked in me.

The conductor appeared a real gentleman. He was never in a hurry, always calm and composed, evident from the way he moved on to and left the stage. He conducted without a baton. Everything was indicated with the smallest movement of this fingers which moved with precision, pointing, curling up, darting out, making wavy movements, suddenly rising and making bigger movements with his hands etc. They were so supple, so versatile. It was a show all by itself. I took full advantage of where I was sitting and was regaled to a kaleiscopic display of his subtle movements. One does not always have to have big movement to produce great sound! He was so generous. He gave us two encores including an excerpt from the Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Reed Flutes of Nutcracker Suite.. As I observed his subtle conducting and his facial expressions, I could not stop my mind from associating what was before my eyes with the face and a former top civil servant: Jack Cater! They look so remarkably alike they might have been twin brothers!.

The concert was a marvellous experience. I always thought the HKPO very good. St. Peterburg Philharmonic is definitely better in the control of the tiniest sound. Their co-operation and sco-ordination of sound are perfect. They all know the imporance of musicality not just accuracy. Everything is just right so that we have nothing but pure music: music as it should be. Its sound will remain long in my mind where it will be replayed over and over again. Even now as I am writing, I can still feel its magic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJOEuJzsApU&feature=related