Waterfront Hall, Belfast

Tchaikovsky – Coronation March

Rachmaninov – Piano Concerto No 2

Rimsky-Korsakov – Sheherazade

The second of three concerts in the Waterfront Hall’s international orchestral series was advertised as

A Russian Winter

. The cold winds of recession had perhaps taken their toll, for there was no printed programme.

Tchaikovsky was as peeved as the programme-less Belfast audience when he had to interrupt work on his opera

Mazeppa

in 1883 to write a march for Alexander III’s coronation.

In the hands of the Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra, under its artistic director and chief conductor, Valery Poliansky, this comparative rarity came across as a dutiful piece, though enlivened by good writing for the distinctive brass and a couple of snatches from the Russian national anthem. The woodwinds (piccolo apart) were lost in Tchaikovsky’s dense textures and it was a pity that the impact of the orchestra’s sound was reduced by the large black curtain hanging across the hall’s lighting rig.

Before the concert and before the concerto, there was some fun as a cellist retrieved the situation of incorrect openings and closings of the piano lid by an attendant. The cellist was duly rewarded by an appreciative round of applause.

Some of that humour wouldn’t have gone amiss in the

Piano Concerto

. The soloist, Tatiana Polianskaya, the conductor’s daughter, had the comfort of a score, but offered undemonstrative playing, all too often lacking in magic, charisma and brilliance, and with surprising splashes and remarkably slow tempi. Rachmaninov’s long lyrical lines failed to hold their shape and his rippling virtuosic figuration was deprived of its glitter.

Full colour was restored for the kaleidoscope which is

Sheherazade

. Poliansky kept everything under tight control. His Sultan in the opening movement was more ponderous than expected but the wandering dervishes of the second movement brought the whole concert to life with light dancing strings, some characterful woodwind solos – now much more prominent – and with lots of drama. There were ensemble and tuning issues along the way, but Poliansky drove the Sultan’s ship onto the rocks with excitable determination.

Some of the most rewarding, expressive and subtle playing was in the first of two encores – the Waltz from Tchaikovsky’s

Sleeping Beauty.