Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra

I attended the second and the third night. The second concert was all Tchaikovsky - March Slave, Violin concerto, Symphony No.3. Boris Belkin was the soloist. He came to Hong Kong many years ago and played Shostakovich. My impression of him was good. But this time, his technique seemed to have deteriorated and he could hardly master the difficult bits of the piece. Sym no.3 is not popular, for valid reasons. So I was actually quite bored until the encores came. There were 4 encores (couldn't name them). Moscow Philharmonic is very even in terms of its sound, except the brass section, which was exceptionally impressive in those encores.

The second night was a split. The highlight of the concert was supposed to be the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.3 played by Shen Wenyu, a young Chinese pianist. He is physically small to play this demanding concerto. I was sitting at the rear Balcony and could hardly hear the piano in some of the passages. Rach 3 should be full of sparks, but I found very few moments of excitement in Shen's playing. The encores were technically brilliant, but I was not moved at all. Chinese pianists, particularly the younger ones, are very eager to play show-off pieces. But very few of them can touch people's heart.

The second-half of the concert was Swan Lake Suite compiled by the conductor. It was brilliantly played by the Moscow Philharmonic. I agree that this piece alone would have made the concert worth attending.

Conclusion: Soloist - mediocre, Orchestra - nice surprise, Conductor - beyond expectation and good control on the dynamics for Russian musics. He just made music dance.