Celibidachiana - Anton Garcia Abril
Piano Concerto No 1 - Liszt
Symphony No 6 - Tchaikovsky
Friday night's concert at the National Concert Hall was striking but frustrating. The Argentine conductor Pedro Ignacio Calderon directed the National Symphony Orchestra, and I find it hard to recall a concert in which the conductor was so inclined to highlight extremities, especially in volume, dynamics and contrasts of speed.
This was not obviously troublesome in the opening item. Celebidachiana - Concerto for Orchestra, by the Spanish composer Anton Garcia Abril (b. 1933), is a homage to the Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache. Its ample, communicative gestures - all in a well-crafted though over-cosmopolitan style - had something in common with the conductor's approach.
Liszt's Piano Concerto No 1 needs more subtle treatment. It is fatal, in a piece dominated by repetitions of short ideas, to mark each event without driving across large spans. The soloist, Joaquin Achucarro, played with a mix of goodnatured panache and deftness; but he strove too consistently, and so missed that desirable impression of ecstatic virtuosity.
The unfailing generosity of Tchaikovsky's music ensured that his Symphony No 6, the Pathetique, got a warm reception. Nevertheless, this piece brought out the worst of the conductor's peccadillos, as well as his best points. There was visceral energy and amply shaped melody; but ensemble was sometimes rough (a problem throughout the concert), and every movement was fragmented by tempo fluctuations far beyond anything indicated by the composer. I am no purist in this matter; but the artist's right to interpret is sustainable only if the result has integrity. This performance did not, and its excesses would have sounded like playing to the gallery had they not been so earnest.