San Francisco's Prokofiev Festival--and two Russian pianists to seek out Jun 24 '07    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music The Dirtchamber Sessions, Vol. 1 by The Prodigy From $11 Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast From $8 The Bottom Line Ilya Yakushev and Mikhail Rudy are electrifying pianists (at least in virtuosic Prokofiev concerti, but I suspect generally). I have loved music of Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) since my childhood (which was a very long time ago. In a summer festival that included performances of all five Prokofiev piano concerti in four programs over the last two week, Michael Tilson Thomas programmed one of my unfavorite symphonies (the Third) along with some of my favorite Prokofiev orchestral music (The Scythian Suite, the Lieutenant Kijé Suite) with the San Francisco Symphony. (I also heard the 1926 "American Overture" for the first time.) I only heard two of the four programs, but three of the piano concerti (1,2,5). My favorite is the second, which is diabolically difficult. Prokofiev wrote four of his five piano concerti (the 4th, for the left hand, commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein) to show off his own talents as a pianist with a legendarily strong wrist and--from having been in a good position to watch the hands of the pianists playing the First and Fifth, a long reach. The piano is a percussion instrument, and Prokofiev and Bartok made sure that listeners remembered that! Vladimir Feltsman (who is a professor at SUNY, New Paltz)has recorded the Prokofiev Second Piano Concerto with MTT (and the London Symphony Orchestra). Feltsman played the Second faster than Vladimir Ashkenazy does in what I thought was the standard set of recording of Prokofiev piano concerti until the San Francisco Symphony Prokofiev Festival. Taking the distinction that Isaac Stern made in the documentary about his visit to the restored music conservatories of post-Cultural Revolution China, "From Mao to Mozart," Feltsman (like Stern) did not his all the notes, adding some glancing dissonances that Prokofiev did not write, but (like Stern, and unlike the soulless prodigies who frustrated him) "played the music." The performance was exciting, particularly the torrid Scherzo. San Francisco audiences are in my opinion way too inclined to giving standing ovations. Feltsman deserved an ovation for getting through the most demanding of Prokofiev's piano concerti with the music largely intact and most of the notes struck, but not a standing ovation. I was more impressed with the young Russian pianist Ilya Yakushev essaying the First, premiered by Prokofiev in 1912 while Prokofiev was still a student. Prokofiev himself called it his "first more or less mature composition." It begins (and ends, and the first movement ends) with a memorable four-note theme. I think the Andante middle wanders a bit, but there are plenty of pyrotechnics along with solid development and multi-hued orchestration. The main theme is slightly melancholic but the concerto as a whole is jaunty (youthful exuberance IMO, though a Moscow reviewer of the premiere pronounced it "coarse and crude, primitive and cacophonous"). Along with the virtuoso technique, Yakushev has the brashness of youth that goes well with the piece. The First runs just over 15 minutes, the Fifth 25. The Fifth also has formidable technical challenges, allowing pianists (starting with Prokofiev himself to show off). Mikhail Rudy has recorded extensively on EMI, toured Europe (playing the Grieg) with the San Francisco Youth Orchestra, and is apparently well-known in Europe (among other things for "Double Dream" and from playing in a stage version of "The Pianist"). Listening to my Ashkenazy recording of the Fifth today, I realized that Ashkenazy was playing it as if it were Rachmaninoff--very suavely. Rudy played it as if it were Prokofiev--not jagged but with greater forcefulness and passion--more Modernist, less Romantic. I think the composition drifts a bit during the Larghetto, but Rudy made the opening a rival for those of the first three Prokofiev piano concerti. I didn't hear Rudy miss any notes, but he played music that is not there in the Ashkenazy recording. (I'd never heard the piece live before last night). I was very, very impressed by both Yakushev and Rudy. The program did not sell that well, but those who were in Davies Hall were very enthusiastic. There were three standing ovations in one program! And none of them was unwarranted (the third was for a suite MTT carved out of Prokofiev's ballet "Cinderella" for a Mahler-sized orchestra). The program showcased the brass (especially trumpets and tuba) as well as the very talented Russian-born pianists. I learned that I do like the Prokofiev Fifth Piano Concerto and need to find a better performance of it than Ashkenazy's. Yakushev is barnstorming the US and has recordings appearing soon. Both he and Rudy are well worth checking out if they appear anywhere near you! BTW, in addition to being surprised by the vastness of the orchestra for the Cinderella suite (the last piece in the festival that I heard), and the rater large ensembles for the piano concerti, I was most astounded by the orchestra for the "American Suite" (the first piece in the festival I heard). There is one cello, two bass viols, and no other srings, but two pianos, two clarinets, two bassoons, drums, a flute, and oboe, and a trombone. The program notes captured the spirit:"a celebration of teh urbane razzle dazzle of the decade" (the decade being the "roaring 1920s and I couldn't better "the tempo picks up with a galumphing dotted figure that is batted around the ensemble"!

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