Review: Bolshoi Symphony *****

From the tingling vitality of the opening bars to the suite from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera, The Tale of Tsar Saltan, the Bolshoi promised a very special concert, and so it proved to be.

The Moscow theatre orchestra is not one of the media’s high-profile Russian ensembles, though it is of an exceptionally high quality. Their conductor, Alexei Stepanov, achieved an internal balance that brought a transparency we rarely enjoy in the Town Hall acoustic. When the score required virtuosity, it was there in abundance. The passage that brought a combined outburst from basses and cellos was a display of the sheer power of the lower strings.

Tense in the opening bars, it was not until we reached the finale of Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto that the young Russian pianist, Ivan Rudin, really relaxed. Yet he is a highly gifted musician who swept aside the work’s technical demands.

The best was saved to last with a superb performance of the complete second act of Tchaikovsky’s ballet, The Nutcracker, including those well-loved “character dances”.

They must have performed it countless times in the theatre, yet everything was made to sound so wonderfully fresh and spontaneous, the solo flute, bassoon, horn and trumpet just a few of a long list that delighted us with outstanding solos.