Tchaikovsky's greatest hits end the summer season with a bang

By Truman C. Wang
Saturday, September 13, 2003

PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
(1840 - 1893)

Vardan Mamikonian, pianist
Carl St. Clair, conductor
Pacific Symphony

Performance of Sunday, September 13, 2003 at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Irvine

IRVINE, CA – My own feelings about outdoor classical concerts, in general, are that most such venues fell in disrepair with outdated equipment and inadequate sound that render anything below triple-digit decibels inaudible.  They are better as venues for plays and musicals than for classical music.  Unless there are other extra-musical interests, such as cannons and fireworks, to recompense for it, I generally avoid these outdoor concerts.

The former Irvine Meadows Amphitheater, now ghastly renamed as Verizon Wireless Amphitheater (I suppose it could have been worse; e.g., Food 4 Less Amphitheater) may be sonically antiquated like the Hollywood Bowl, it does, however, boast comfortable seats and plentiful parking.  The sound emanating from its band shell is often thin and poorly balanced, giving more emphasis to the soloist than the orchestra. 

Which is too bad, because Tchaikovsky's B-flat minor piano concerto needs a big sound from the outset to register its impact.  If the first movement did not quite hold together, it's mainly the sound engineer's fault for not projecting the orchestral sound properly.  Under the circumstances, Armenian pianist Vardan Mamikonian played with an attractive lightness of touch in the poetic second movement and plenty of virtuosic brio in the outer movements.  Like his mentor Lazar Berman (during his heyday in the early 1970's), Mr. Mamikonian is equipped with a rich singing tone and a fine instinct for rhetorical phrasing.  One only missed a sense of barnstorming in the final coda, which ended rather squarely.

On its own, the Pacific Symphony played well under conductor Carl St. Clair, showing tremendous rhythmic drive in the Polonaise from "Yvgeny Onegin",  and boasting superb solo turns in the Swan Lake Suite: Raymond Kobler's engaging violin solo in Danse russe, felicitous woodwind phrasing in Danse espagnol and Danse napolitane.  The closing apotheosis was dramatic and positively thrilling.

The 1812 Overture displayed a full arsenal of brasses, cannons and brilliant fireworks that brought the Pacific Symphony’s summer season to its stunning conclusion.  I am looking forward to the opening of the orchestra’s fall season, when it will move indoors to the acoustically splendid Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa.
 

Pacific Symphony's 2003-2004 season opens Oct 8.  For tickets, call (714) 755-5799 or visit www.pacificsymphony.org

 

Truman C. Wang is editor of Classical Voice.

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