Mariinsky Orchestra and Daniil Trifonov

See my review of the concert by the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra:

Valery Gergiev Leads Mariinsky Theater Orchestra in Reinvigorating Tchaikovsky (The Washingtonian, October 10):

Winners of the 4th Scriabin International Piano Competition (Daniil Trifonov, inter alii)

The indefatigable conductor Valery Gergiev is leading his Mariinsky Theater Orchestra on a U.S. tour this month, centered on a series of performances celebrating the 120th anniversary of the opening of Carnegie Hall in New York. Because Andrew Carnegie invited composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky to conduct at the hall’s opening festival in 1891 Gergiev is conducting all of the composer’s symphonies this week.

On Saturday night, the orchestra from St. Petersburg made a stop in Fairfax, at a strangely undersold George Mason University Center for the Arts, in a very short interval between concerts in New York. This is enough Tchaikovsky to stun a small cat, but the way that Gergiev conducts it, especially with the astounding young Russian virtuoso Daniil Trifonov (and child prodigy, of course) at the keyboard for the composer’s first piano concerto, makes even a cynical critic sit up and pay attention.

Trifonov showed the exceptional virtuosity that presumably made it possible for him to win awards at most of the big piano competitions in the last couple years. He won a bronze medal at the Chopin competition in 2010 and the gold medal at this summer’s grand-daddy of all competitions, the Tchaikovsky Competition. It was Gergiev who chaired the Tchaikovsky jury this year, promising to rid that competition of favoritism, but it ended up being a year when the judges chose a Russian pianist, a selection that in previous years might have raised eyebrows. From the beginning of his performance of Tchaikovsky’s first concerto -- which he also played at the Tchaikovsky competition -- Trifonov made clear that he had defined ideas about the piece, slicing into the slightly sluggish orchestra with the famous hammered chords that open the solo part. [Continue reading]

SEE ALSO:
Anne Midgette, Pianist Daniil Trifonov’s playing is freakishly brilliant (Washington Post, October 10)

Brian Wise, Live Tuesday Night: The Mariinsky Orchestra Plays Tchaikovsky (NPR, October 7) -- the October 11 Carnegie Hall performance (8 pm) will be broadcast live on NPR's Web site

Anthony Tommasini, From Russia, Authentic Tchaikovsky, With Love (New York Times, October 7)

Ronni Reich, Hearing the Mariinsky magic live is a must (Newark Star-Ledger, October 6)

James D. Watts, Jr., Signature Symphony excels in evening of Tchaikovsky gems (Tulsa World, October 3)

Andrew Clark, Tchaikovsky Competition Winners, Barbican, London (Financial Times, September 26)