Saturday, March 17, 2007

National Philharmonic of Russia encores: Olga Kern

Last night's concert by the National Philharmonic of Russia yielded two encores in addition to the regular program. Both were played before intermission and both were solo piano works, played by the evening's piano soloist, Olga Kern: Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C#, Opus 3, no. 2 and Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee.



Natlphilspiv



After the performance I witnessed something I have never seen following an orchestral concert. Maestro Vladimir Spivakov waited backstage to personally greet dozens of members of the orchestra as they came offstage with what were clearly words of thanks and congratulations. They were speaking Russian, of course, which I do not speak, but the substance of what conductor and orchestra were saying to each other was clear. There were a lot of hugs and kisses and a lot of genuine affection. It has been my experience that most conductors retire to their private rooms after a performance, maybe staying long enough for a word or two with the concertmaster, but Spivakov clearly has a close relationship with his musicians.



3 comments:

  1. I assume the arrangement of "Flight of the Bumblebee" which Olga Kern played on Friday is the one by Rachmaninoff? Does anyone know for certain?
    Thanks.

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  2. What were the encore pieces?
    Olga Kern played Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C#, Opus 3, no. 2 and Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee before intermission.
    I also included a little mini-report from backstage:
    http://cseries.typepad.com/celebrityseries/2007/03/national_philha.html

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  3. I was in the audience that evening! The most memorable moment of the concert was when Spivakov took the orchestra from the third movement of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique symphony to the finale without pause.

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