Tue Mar 29, 2011 4:59 pm
Last night, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra with guest conductor Roberto Minczuk, performing:
Prokofiev - The Meeting of the Volga & the Don, Op. 130
Prokofiev - Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Magor, OP. 19 * (with Baiba Skride on violin)
Rachmaninoff - Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27.
Apparently, worried about not having a full house for guest violinist Skride, the VSO spread free tickets through it's subscribers, so my daughter & i were in for free.
Not much on the orchestras usually, but the second piece was pretty far out - not your usual orchestral fare. Wasn't drowned in strings, but a lot of space, and the final mov't had a great counterbalance between the violin and a tuba solo (then echoed by the french horns). And a perfect highlight for a fabulous young violinist (who seems comfortable with her hand living in 11th position!) and a fabulous Strad violin ("Wilhelmj", 1725).
The first piece was good too, although hilariously an industrial ode to a canal, from the darkest days of Soviet state art direction - "inspired by the idea of earth-moving equipment & human labour..." but was actually great, with lots of stops & starts and changes. It was way more interesting than the Rachmaninoff, which was nice but the 3rd mov't totally put my daughter to sleep.
These guys were only 20 years apart in age, one born in the Ukraine & one in Russia, shared many influences, but ended up a lot different. Hm, maybe this should be in the "things i learned" thread...