Tuesday, February 11, 2014

MSO Edisher Savitski, February 8, 2014

Piano concert Saturday, February 8, 2014, 8pm at Midland Center for the Arts
Midland Symphony Orchestra
featuring Edisher Savitski, piano
Ticket Prices:
Rows BBB-Z: $41.00 Adult / $15.00 Student
Rows AA-GG: $32.00 Adult / $15.00 Student
Program:
Verdi – Overture to La Forza del Destino
Shostakovich – Piano Concerto No. 1
Dvorak – Symphony No. 8

The night started out with Verdi and after intermission the audience enjoyed Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8. In the middle, was special guest Edisher Savitski.

Pianist Edisher Savitski joined the Midland Symphony Orchestra for Shostakovich’s Concerto for Piano (No. 1, Op. 35), Trumpet and String Orchestra. The MSO was conducted by Bohuslav Rattay.

You could see the pianist’s hands on two overhead screens on the sidewalls surrounding the stage. The screens changed from a close-up of the hands, to an areal view of the keyboard, to the orchestra. 

Savitski played with the orchestra and played very well. His hand fluttered across the keyboard and he played very emotionally. Both hands moved up and down the keys, the left crossing middle C up the keyboard and the right crossing middle C down the octaves. Savitski’s hands expanded and contracted to reach all the notes on time like a fast stop animation. Many times his hands looked like they were sculpting clay to form something, the invisible sculpture creating sound instead.

The pianist had to follow a conductor but was also given liberty to set his own tempo during parts that featured piano with minimal orchestra. The two nodded to each other and negotiated when to start. It was like a chamber orchestra in that sense. The conductor controlled the orchestra as one instrument, the pianist was another instrument, and the trumpet soloist was the third player in the ensemble. Savitski watched the conductor and the orchestra to match them when he came in, but then could sometimes do his own thing. He just needed to overlap with the other musicians to share a measure to connect the orchestra with the sections featuring piano.

The atmosphere of the concert was the excitement of the regular symphony-goers in town. Many people dressed up. It was also rather dramatic when the piano was rolled out for the middle piece. The grand piano was on wheels and was so long it looked like you could fit a body inside it. It looked like a coffin when the top was lifted and propped up like it was preparing for a viewing – only without the morbid connotations of such an analogy. On the side read Steinway & Sons.

The concert hall was the Midland Center for the Arts Auditorium. The hall is distinctively Alden B. Dow and the green seats epitomize Dow’s aesthetic. The auditorium has an amazing sound quality and it is especially amazing to have a space like this given the size of the city: 40,000 people.

The musicians were all dressed in traditional black, with men in white shirts under their black suits. The pianist dressed in all black. The only spot of color was the conductor’s trademark red shoes, but it was only imagined color because he only wears them in rehearsals—not for performances.

One question I have is from the playbill: What elements of Shostakovich’s composition did critics of the time view as “petty bourgeois formalism” and “leftist distortion”?

I am interested in finding out how the Czech countryside inspired Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8.

My emotional response wasn’t so much emotional as contemplating and following the mood of the music and where it went as a visceral experience.

I enjoyed all three pieces.

It was an enjoyable 90 minutes and I would definitely attend this concert again.

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