Review of Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra at Perth Festival of the Arts

May 24 2011 Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

AND the run of superlative performances during Perth Festival of the Arts continued.

On the classical side so far this year there has been, nothing so low on the scale as merely very good.

And Sunday added to this with the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra under conductor Alan Buribayev at Perth Concert Hall.

The all Russian concert was unusual in construction and hugely applauded by a very full hall.

The first half was extracts from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin which started with a lyrically sensitive reading of the miniature tone poem.

As orchestra for the Bolshoi Opera, they had brought two of the principal singers as soloists.

Soprano Maria Pakhar joined in its best-known part: Tatyana’s Letter Scene, and the 12 minutes or so of this piece were an unqualified delight. Setting a flowing pace conductor Alan Buribayev brought out orchestral colour with fine solos for oboe and horn. Yet it was necessarily Pakhar who was most impressive. With immense reserves of wonderful tone she sang with a freedom of emotion, capable, too, of the softest, finely floated line.

The third piece brought baritone Andrei Breus as Onegin to the scene when the over-sophisticated city dweller tells the naïve Tatyana in a kindly but dismissive way that this is a silly young crush.

Breus was generous and smooth of voice and brought a degree of acting to his performance.

On their own the orchestra brought tremendous verve to the Polonaise with strongly rhythmic power and strings of silky quality. For the final duet the tables were turned with Tatyana now happily married and Onegin realizing what he has lost. The identification of the singers with their rôles was absolute, their acting through the voice was superb.

Ten excerpts from Prokofiev’s Ballet Cinderella formed the second half.

The Introduction showed Prokofiev played passionately, again with great depth of string tone.

Bright colours and a fearless trumpet vividly brought out the humour and delight in the grotesque for the two Ugly Sisters’ dance.

The third piece showed the phenomenal articulation of the strings at speed as did the later Galop. A sumptuous, fateful, modern sounding Waltz lead into the clangorous and frightening sounding of midnight played with drama by this excellent combination of orchestra and conductor.

To resounding applause the orchestra gave two encores: the Pas de deux from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, with great cello tone and emotional heat, followed by absolutely fearless playing of the colourful Lezghinka from Khachaturian’s ballet Gayaneh.

Ian Stuart-Hunter