A gorgeous night of Russian music: a review!

I spent last night downtown at Orchestra Hall, listening to the Minnesota Orchestra in concert. My friend Karen invited me to join her for the Thursday night performance.

Whenever I go to Orchestra Hall, I have so many emotions. I worked there for the first two years of our life in Minnesota, many ages ago: 1980-1982, in the marketing department, so Orchestra Hall isn't just a concert hall to me, but my old office. And Karen was one of my bosses back then. I was so young then, only 22 when I started working there. Sometimes when I go to the Hall now, I will get that nervous excitement I used to feel going to work.

Here we are 25 years later!

The concert had just three works: "A Night on Bald Mountain" by Mussorgsky was the opener. Very exciting, and eye-opening. I thought I "knew" the piece, but I really didn't, because I only knew the version by Rimsky-Korsakov which is used in Disney's "Fantasia" movie. The original by Mussorgsky is quite different and had me on the edge of my seat. Well, maybe not literally. We were, after all, in the front row of Tier One, and if I'd been much edgier, I'd have fallen out of the tier! Now that would have been a really embarrassing and dangerous way to start the orchestra season, huh?

The orchestra personnel has changed a lot since I worked there in the '80s, but there are still many players I knew. It's not like I haven't attended any MO concerts in the intervening decades, but it was especially poignant to be there with Karen. I could ask her little questions about the orchestra musicians and she knows everyone, that was fun.

The highlight of the concert for me was the young Chinese pianist Jie Chen's performance of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto with the orchestra. Chen has the face of an angel. She wore a startlingly blue sleeveless gown with a bustle or bow effect in the back. She's got the rather slight build of many Asian women and yet she used her whole body to play the Rachmaninoff: at many times she came right up off the bench at the end of some big phrases. When I was a piano teacher, I often told my students that we need to involve our ENTIRE body in playing. She is only nineteen. She won the big International Piano e-Competition last year and apparently the Rach. Second was her big piece then. Clearly she has inhabited the music and it came across.

I particularly loved watching her interact with the orchestra and conductor. Not only is she a good listener, but she is intimately involved with the orchestral part. She really shines in the more lyrical, espressivo passages; her more precise, virtuosic parts are perhaps not as precise as they could be, which is my only criticism of her performance. But she really played beautifully and conveyed the Rachmaninoff spirit throughout. She had a way of pulling you into the whole piece, not just the piano part, which is really quite magical. Osmo Vanska, the conductor, seemed to have a great rapport with Chen. The audience response was huge: a standing ovation, many "bravo"s and hollering for the soloist, many curtain calls, just a fabulous performance and really one of my favorite young pianists I've heard in ages. I will definitely follow her career.

After intermission the orchestra played Stravinsky's "Petrushka" which is one of those pieces I like to give to people who say they don't care for classical music. It's bold and brilliant and rhythmical and constantly changing, and it stays in your ear forever once you've heard it. Last night they did the 1947 revision, which is not the ballet version so often heard. In this revision, the piano part takes more of a major role. Karen explained to me that the piano position in the orchestra is still open but that Susan Billmeyer (hope I got her name right) has won the job of interim pianist. In any case, Susan applied herself to the Stravinsky and did a very good job of a very difficult score. I've played piano in orchestral music and it is hard to get the timing and articulation just right; it's very different from playing solo.

All evening, the solo parts from Burt Hara, the principal clarinet of the orchestra, were just gorgeous. There was a section in the slow movement of the Rachmaninoff where he and the pianist traded phrases...so beautiful I was crying. I've heard Burt play for years but I think he was at his very best last night. Interestingly, Mike Anthony, the music reviewer for the Tribune, mentions Burt in his review of last night, too, so I guess I am not alone in noticing this. (Karen noticed this, too.)

The orchestra is playing this same program again tonight and it will be broadcast live on MN Public Radio.

And oh, as I was waiting for the elevator in the parking ramp, there was just this huge crowd of people waiting and some of us got restless and decided to walk inside the ramp to our cars. In particular, this nice gentleman and his wife and I made this decision; it was Walter and Joan Mondale. I've seen them pretty often around the cities and at church and concerts, and I always feel I "should" say something profound to him, but instead it seems that we just make small talk and that seems right, too. I do admire them both very much and have been praying for their daughter, Eleanor, who is dealing with a brain tumor.

So there you have my review. I will definitely write about Springsteen when I go to hear him in October, and any other good concerts I am able to catch along the way.

I should say, too, that it was fun to dress up a bit and suspend reality for a couple of hours in order to be washed in the Russian music. Like going to the movies only better, because it's live music, for God's sake, by these incredible musicians!