When music critics use the term “easy listening”, it’s usually meant as derogatory. But should it be? Last night at the Barbican, the London Symphony Orchestra’s programme consisted of three works which are undoubtedly easy to listen to, but are so replete with life and colour as to create a delightful concert, which improved as it went along. Besides, I won’t easily forget the sight of Alain Altinoglu doing chicken impressions on the conductor’s podium – but more of that later.
Replacing the previously advertised Kodály Háry János suite as a curtain-raiser, Mussorgsky’s Prelude to Sorochintsy Fair made this an all-Russian evening. Altinoglu was obviously in high good humour as he beamed through the amiably bucolic opening, becoming rapt as we proceeded to the romantic second section. Just as obvious was the high sound quality of every section of the LSO, though I’m not sure they were enjoying the piece as much as their conductor. They cheered up when the music speeded up into its fast peasant dance.
The good humour was perhaps explained when Simon Trpčeski arrived and announced that his performance was dedicated to Altinoglu on the occasion of his birthday, before settling onto his piano stool. After a long pause, Trpčeski embarked on the solo opening to Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no. 2 in C minor, the alternating middle register chords and single bass notes delivered with a steady tread, each note calculated and weighted with perfect precision. Here was a pianist utterly in his comfort zone with this work and thoroughly happy to be playing it with this conductor and orchestra. The LSO’s quality of sound only became more evident, with sumptuously rich cello and bass passages and clarinet phrases full of life and character. The concerto is easy to listen to because it is so replete with melody – there’s hardly a set of half a dozen bars without some tune that sticks in your head and carries you along.
But maybe it was all just a little too comfortable. Trpčeski was playing things just a shade safe, perfectly consistent and accurate but sometimes submerged in the orchestral wash and not always quite in time with it. While every instrument group was gloriously together within itself, there were occasions where a mistiming between desks, however slight, caused a hesitation which interrupted the romantic flow. There were some great passages, particularly the fugato part of the last movement, but this concerto offers the possibility of greater bite.