The Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra Gives Us Russian Pictures

Master pianist Eri Nakagawa has every reason to smile after her memorable performance of Prokofief’s Third Piano Concerto with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra.

 
Music Auditorium. Mahidol University Salaya Campus. Nakhonpathom, Thailand. September 8, 2012. Japanese pianist Eri Nakagawa showed once again that she can play anything she chooses, whether it be all of Chopin's Etudes at one recital, or the Rachmaninoff 3^rd Piano Concerto, or chamber music, or recording a lovely CD of Bach's inventions and sinfonias, and play them all well. But, Prokofief's popular 3^rd piano concerto, which has become a favorite in the final rounds of major piano competitions, is a special challenge, not only for its phenomenal difficulty and virtuosity, but also because of the numerous musical elements which form the fabric of the work, be they lyricism, dissonance, tonality, wit, or frequent changes of tempi and mood, and while the concerto is quintessentially 20^th century, it has abundant classical structures, such as the second movement's theme and variations. The challenge facing the pianist and orchestra is to turn Prokofief's score into something beyond a romp, and at Saturday's TPO performance, soloist and orchestra gave Prokofief's 3^rd piano concerto as excellent a performance as we are likely to hear in Thailand. When called upon, Nakagawa was propulsive and percussive, but when a dramatic change was indicated, Nakagawa responded with warm melodic lyricism, punctuating these passages with Prokofief's characteristic "wrong notes." Nakagawa never looked at conductor Gudni Emilsson, but Emilsson had his orchestral troops in such order, and his oneness with the soloist was so complete, that the two had a shared understanding of what they wanted to produce, which, judging from the cheers from the audience, also was what the audience wanted to hear. An altogether memorable performance.

In any list of symphonic warhorses, the Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition would be in the top rung. One could find some imperfections in TPO's rendition, but the overall performance was of an orchestral sound that rivals that of many professional orchestras. It was a very credible and enjoyable rendition of this over-played work.