Orchestras have taken to giving their concerts titles, presumably to make it easier for audiences to grasp what they're about. On Wednesday night (repeated Thursday December 1st) the Liverpool Phil's concert was entitled “Pictures” largely because the bill was topped by Ravel's inspired orchestration of Mussorgsky's “Pictures at an Exhibition”. In the event it was pretty apt. What we got was a series of lively images of Russia and Hungary with a colourful wash of folk tunes, and, if not all authentic, at least sounding as if they should be.
Borodin's Polovtsian Dances are the best-known element of his unfinished opera “Prince Igor”. Their familiarity can be as much a curse as a blessing but Dworzynski, making his debut with the Phil, rattled easily through with a lightness of touch which avoided the turgid romanticism often associated with them. The chorale playing of the woodwind was especially delicate and the dances really sounded like dances.
At the time Glazunov wrote his violin concerto, at the turn of the twentieth century, while the artists known as the Fauves were breaking exciting new artistic ground, some painters continued to paint absolutely orthodox landscapes. So it was with Glazunov who, a quarter of a century after Tchaikovsky's controversial violin concerto, did not apparently feel the need to break new ground. The twenty-one year old Eugene Ugorski played the piece with easy elan but was never stretched. Next time perhaps he could be asked to do the Tchaikovsky.
In the orchestral showpieces which followed: Kodaly's Dances from Galanta and, especially the Mussorgsky, Dworzynski held the orchestra together well, allowing the brass section to demonstrate its beautiful tone amid the fine ensemble playing. We should look forward to his early return.
8/10
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