Maidstone Symphony Orchestra
Mote Hall, Maidstone Leisure Centre
Conductor: Brian Wright
Pianist: Ariel Lanyi
This concert was a neat chronological programme starting with Brahms (1880) and ending with Prokofief (1944) taking in Rachmaninov (1927) on the way. Much of the work was dauntingly challenging so it made an impressive opening to the 2024/5 season.
It took a few bars for Academic Festival Overture to cohere properly but thereafter it was a pleasing performance. The big brass melody was very slow but the off-beat passages surged along. And all those frantic string scale passages down the final page were delivered with commendable clarity as the brass belted out Gaudeamus Igitur.
There are, of course, some beautiful passages in Rachmaninov’s fourth piano concerto, played here with stunning sensitivity by Ariel Lanyi but in general it lacks the easy appeal of the composer’s other three. For me – I am mildly synaesthetic – anything in G Minor is slate blue and the piano and horn duet work in the first movement was definitely just that, with Lanyi catching every mood. He gave us a schmultzy solo introduction to the Largo and Wright ensured that the muted, legato string work picked that up. And then it was seamlessly but dramatically (nice cymbal work) into the Allegro. Lanyi is certainly an electrifying player to watch: there are thousands of notes in many rhythms and moods in the last movent but he nailed them with panache.
Telling the audience that he thought it was time for something calmer, Lanyi then played Chopin’s Nocturne in C sharp minor for his encore and it was delivered with great delicacy. You could see and feel (but not hear, thank goodness) him breathing the music so it flowed with elegant warmth.
There is certainly plenty for everyone to do in Prokofief’s fifth symphony, the scoring for which includes five percussionists plus timps, double brass, piano and harp. It’s not the most familiar of Prokofeif’s symphonies and it was clearly a new challenge for many of the players. I could sense careful counting amongst the furrowed brows. But it came off resoundingly well. Highlights included fine underpinning from trombone and bass drum in the heavy statements in the first movement and the lightness achieved by the whole orchestra in the Allegro marcato. I also admired the compelling rhythms sustained by piano and tuba and the dynamic contrasts in the Adagio and the lovely playing of the clarinet melody in the final movement. And excellent work from all those accomplished percussionists made the whole work feel pretty exciting.