Delos Diary

As recently as February 1st, 2005, we posted a diary entry updating our information on British composer and Delos recording artist, Richard Rodney Bennett.
As his 70th birthday appraoches, Bennett's career seems to have leaped onto the fast track. Between the 9th of March and the 8th of April 2006, several events in London will celebrate this 70th anniversary and Sir Richard's stature as composer and performer.
One that sounds especially interesting will be the world premiere on March 9, 2006 at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, of a piece commissioned on behalf of the Prince of Wales by the Peter Moore Foundation. Dedicated to the memory of recently deceased Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, the composition is called "Reflections on a Scottish Folk Song." It is scored for solo cello and orchestra and is about one half-hour in length.
Other events during this same time period include a March 28 Wigmore Hall, London, program entitled "A Richard Rodney Bennett Songbook." (This is one day before his actual birthday.) With longtime friends and musical partners joining him, Sir Richard will undoubtedly regale an enraptured audience with his songs, both popular and serious.
Finally on April 8 two concerts, one at St. Giles Cripplegate, London, and the other at Barbican Hall, will present a survey of Bennett's symphonic and choral works. These will include the world premiere of a new work for chorus and orchestra and will involve an impressive cast of performers, among them the BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, plus a number of soloists.
It's evident that having reached the age of 70 Richard Rodney Bennett does not intend to rest on his laurels.
Happy Birthday to a distinguished artist and colleague!

Delos Diary

Our beloved Moscow Chamber Orchestra has embarked on another of its exhausting and exhaustive North American tours — the kind that would try most mens' souls but on which they seem to thrive. Much credit must go to conductor Constantine Orbelian who inspires this group to play at their 100% best at every performance.
Please see our posting of two of their latest reviews, one from Toronto, Canada, and one from Wolf Trap near Washington, DC. Both are ecstatic about the sound of the orchestra and about the music it plays. Our recordings do not lie and on them the orchestra soulds great, but hearing them in person, if they're in your neighborhood, is a unique experience.
As the Canadian reviewer says, "the pleasure to be had from such a world-class ensemble rekindles a sense of optimism about just being alive. You could see that in the audience streaming out of the hall…"

Moscow Chamber Orchestra's Magical Woods

Washington Post
Monday, October 10, 2005; C09

There was celebration aplenty Friday night at the Barns at Wolf Trap: The Moscow Chamber Orchestra is marking its 50th season, the Barns its 25th.

The 17-member MCO retains almost the precision of a well-drilled string quartet. Yet it sounded as resonant as a much larger ensemble, thanks to the acoustics of Wolf Trap's 1731 barn-turned-concert-hall. Conductor Constantine Orbelian brightened the evening immediately with Grieg's "Holberg Suite," which featured warm sound, unusually clear pizzicati and especially fine cello playing.

Principal cellist Alexander Zagorinsky brought great warmth and richness of tone to Tchaikovsky's Pezzo Capriccioso in B Minor, handling its dramatic opening and difficult scurrying runs with equal ease.

Shostakovich's anguished Chamber Symphony in C Minor, an arrangement of his String Quartet No. 8 by MCO founder Rudolf Barshai, darkened the mood considerably. This is taut, dour music, filled with self-quotations and bits of Wagner and Tchaikovsky -- assembled as autobiography, not pastiche. The MCO's precise playing perfectly suited this compressed, angular work.

Barshai's arrangement of Prokofiev's five pianotrifles, "Visions Fugitives," opened the second half with fine ensemble work and more excellent pizzicati. Then came an amazingly lush Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings. The waltz was played with wonderful lilt and delicacy, the cellos' sound had the richness of melted butter in the "Elegie," and the precision of the speedy finale was remarkable. It was as if there were magic in the wood -- both the wood of the instruments and that of the Barns.

-- Mark J. Estren

Galina Gorchakova and Moscow Chamber Orchestra

Constantine Orbelian, conductor
October 6, 2005 • George Weston Recital Hall • Toronto

Alive Music in Weston Recital Hall
by Stanley Fefferman
The Live Music Report.com

The 'Prelude' opening Grieg's Holberg Suite is sweetly lyrical with some hoppy and swirly bits and, like a lot of Grieg's music, has a grand anthemic sweep. The Moscow Chamber Orchestra, conducted barehanded by Maestro Constantine Orbelian, let the dynamics flow responsively between the delicate and firmer tones, setting a standard for impeccability that never faltered during the evening.

The succeeding 'Sarabande' gave a different kind of pleasure with the swelling strings propelled by the throbbing bass; the 'Gavot', oh so familiar as the theme of some CBC Radio show, is a catchy tune. This was followed by the gorgeous 'Aria', slow and stately, sailing by like a flock of swans on a moonlit lake. Although no faults had registered in my ear thus far, by the closing 'Rigadon, that fling-like dance, the orchestra had warmed up and seemed to be breathing like a single creature creating lots of breathing space for the audience.

Enter Galina Gorchakova, a creamy, statuesque brunette, sheathed in black velvet and extravagantly draped in purple raw silk. This legendary dramatic soprano from Valery Gergiev's Kirov Opera began her performance with Rubenstien’s "The Night", the rich, heavily coloured tones of her voice, full of power, yet somehow conveying intimacy as well.

Her song, Glinka’s "Ya Zdes Inezilla," a lively arioso-serenade in bolero style portraying a Russian Don Juan allowed Gorchakova to convey shifting attitudes of seduction, bravado, energy, and a bit of satire. The rest of her program consisted of three songs by Rachmaninoff, very Russian, very emotional. Her interpretation of his "Spring Waters", sounding kind of Broadway, brought the largely Russian crowd to its feet.

Maestro Orbelian, a warm but contained man who resembles Rob Reiner, kissed Gorchakova’s cheeks and hand, the concertmaster kissed her hand, she gave two encores, and after a brief intermission, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra showed it's virtuosity and passion in performances of Prokofiev’s "Visions Fugitives," and Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, Op. 48.

Orbelian’s ace, in my opinion, is his power to maintain a sense of delicacy in the midst of ecstatic flights, as in the Walzer movement of the "Serenade," a waltz which, by the way, outStrausses Strauss. One instance of Orbelian's control of occurs towards the end of the "Elegie" movement where he arrests a robust passage with infinite gradations of tone till it lands on a silence like a butterfly.

The pleasure to be had from such a world-class ensemble rekindles a sense of optimism about just being alive. You could see that in the audience streaming out of the hall towards their transportation. We have Show One productions and producer Svetlana Dvoretskaia to thank for this.