Bela Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra, Sz.116, BB 123
Conductor: Juraj Valcuha
Piano: Behzod Abduraimov
Exactly two weeks and one fleeting cold after going to the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone with my visiting friend Vittorio for Tchaikovsky’s fabulous Piano Concerto No. 1, I was back, alone this time, for Rachmaninoff’s equally fabulous Piano Concerto No. 3 last Saturday evening. Unsurprisingly, the Sala Santa Cecilia was just as packed and buzzing with excitement as the previous time. Another irrefutable proof that if you program beloved warhorses, they will come.
Last Saturday night’s record attendance was all the more remarkable as Slovak conductor Juraj Valčuha and Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov, while well-known and respected in their fields, are not quite established household names yet. On the other hand, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia has a pristine reputation and a simple mention of the monumental Rach 3 rarely fails to set aflutter the hearts of classical music aficionados, and others too (No offense to Bartok, whose work I was looking forward to discovering as well). So nobody had to twist any concert-goer's arms to show up, even on a cold and wet Saturday evening.
When it comes to their opening notes, Tchaikovsky’s and Rachmaninoff’s works could not be more different: The former is blatantly attention-grabbing while the second is deceptively subdued, almost apprehensive of where it is going. That said, on Saturday night, Abduraimov knew exactly how to proceed, and he took us there with impressive dexterity and confidence. Not only did he readily overcome the score’s countless daunting technical challenges, but he also brilliantly conveyed its lyrical beauty, emotional depth, and pervasive sense of mystery.
At about 40 minutes, the composition is not overly long, but it is relentlessly demanding. Bringing it to life therefore requires constant concentration and unwavering stamina, both of which Abduraimov obviously has in spades. He almost made his commanding performance look effortless, and he certainly made it sound thrilling for all of us, as the stunned silence filling the concert hall during its entire duration could attest.
After wrapping up such a flawless tour de force, he would have been forgiven for just basking in the thunderous applause and call it a night. But no, he had more in store for us, and he eventually sat back down at the piano to treat us to an equally virtuosic take on Franz Liszt’s delightful Campanella, the third of his six Grandes études de Paganini, S. 141.
After intermission, everybody was back in their seats for Bela Bartok’s unquestionably pleasant yet rather conventional by his standards Concerto for Orchestra, but our hearts may not have been into it as much as the perfectly respectable work and admittedly wonderful performance deserved. For a lot of us, our evening had already been made with the mind-blowing experience that had been Rach 3, and there was quite a bit of comment exchanging, body shifting and phone checking in the audience during the second part of the program. But then again, the power of music eventually prevailed, and we all gratefully took it in.
