Carmen Suite - Rodion Shchedrin
Concerto for the Left Hand - Ravel
Pictures at an Exhibition - Mussorgsky/Ravel
Much is expected of the National Symphony Orchestra's new principal conductor, Alexander Anissimov. The opening of the new subscription series last night launched a Russo-French strand in his programming. Shchedrin's Carmen, originated as a ballet in 1967. His re-scoring of Bizet for strings and percussion was well aired in the 1970s, offering a contemporary wrapping for much-loved tunes, perking them up with unexpected, often dazzling and sometimes cheeky instrumental legerdemain.
The NSO's playing here (as in the closing Mussorgsky/Ravel) offered flavours of both the past and the likely future - on the one hand, some notably ragged passages, moments on the high wire which did not come off, and a limited sense of commitment depriving some of the peaks of the necessary zing, on the other, a greater refinement of tone colour and a tighter discipline than has been the rule in the recent past. Anissimov conducted as if he relished every moment, but yet the Shchedrin seemed longer than the fun it had to offer.
A sensitively probing illumination was brought to the murky depths of the opening of the Ravel concerto (the double bassoonist deserves especial praise), with Anissimov showing frequent awareness of the exactness of Ravel's orchestral imagination. Cassard, less illuminating in Ravel than Debussy, lived sometimes dangerously, yet also with musicianly and rewarding circumspection.
