Nikolai Orloff

RAVEL

ORCHESTRATES

MOUSSORGSKY

M. Serge Koussewitzky introduced to the subscribers of his second concert at the Opéra a remarkable young Russian pianist, M. N. Orloff, professor at the Moscow Conservatory of Music, who made his first appearance before a Parisian audience on Thursday night with a brilliant performance of the second concerto by Rachmaninoff. This unassuming, modest young man, devoid of all mannerisms, played with sparkling, clean technic, which overcame all the difficulties of the allegro scherzando with astounding ease, while in the adagio he showed a warmth of feeling and sensitiveness of touch which stood out in marked contrast to his powerful performance of the moderato. M. Koussewitzky’s skillful accompanying contributed largely to the enjoyment of the concerto. At the instigation of M. Koussewitzky, the audience gave an ovation to Maurice Ravel, tucked away in one of the back seats of the orchestra presumably out of shame for not appearing in his, morally obligatory, evening clothes. This serious breach of etiquette did not, however, prevent those present from showing M. Ravel how much they had enjoyed his ingenious and delightful orchestration of Moussorgsky’s “Tableaux d’une Exposition”, performed for the first time by M. Koussewitzy’s excellent orchestra. Originally composed as a suite for the piano, Moussorgsky describes in short sketches ten pictures by his friend, V. Hartmann, exhibited in 1874 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Petrograd. In transcribing this suite for orchestra, M. Ravel has achieved in a masterly, often very amusing, manner an atmosphere of Russian instrumentation, strongly reminiscent of the style characteristic of the great composer of “Boris Godunow.” Before starting the suite M. Koussewitzky announced from the platform that he was obliged to omit the second number, as the man playing the saxophone had fallen ill, which caused my neighbour to remark: “What a poor excuse, with the jazz’ bands playing in Paris!”

SCOTTISH ORCHESTRA

Chopin and Tchaikovsky

NICOLAI ORLOFF

It would be difficult to find a greater contrast in orchestral writing than that presented by Chopin’s F minor Pianoforte Concerto followed by Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. Chopin was content with the barest background of orchestral tone, mostly string, for the greater part of his concerto, and although he may well have been right for the kind of pianoforte writing he wanted to support (and great authorities say he was right), the result is harder on the attention of the orchestral players than if he had been as exacting as Tchaikovsky in his physical and emotional demands.

All was not right, then, with the accompaniment to the concerto in the Usher Hall last night. The soloist, Mr Nicolai Orloff, also had his uncertainties although he played the slow movement with fine poetic feeling and a true sense of its ornamental features. In spite of unevennesses the work was, indeed, a whole, enjoyable to listen to quietly persuasive rather than domineering in the manner of the more often performed concertos.

The Tchaikovsky performance made one forget about the somewhat weak playing of two Ballet Airs (G major and B minor) from the “Rosamunde” music and blemishes of intonation in the “Leonora” No. 3 Overture, with which the concert opened. The Scottish Orchestra, spurred on by Walter Susskind, who lost his stick twice in the course of the evening, was at its best in Russian, and everyone played with a will.

The gloomy aspect of the first movement was not overdone, the horn solo in the slow movement was of the comfortable and comforting kind; the Valse swung along lightly with all its delightful rusting ornaments gently displayed; and the Finale thundered out its exciting solution to the whole problem of life presented by the other movements. It may be that, in the end, it is a kind of exultate diabolo, but it matters little so long as it is the means of working up such a feeling of exhilaration as Mr Susskind got into it last night. One more baton might well have counted as the hat-trick.