Review: Rachmaninov and Nielsen with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra

Once Langeland had finished playing, the concert proper began. On the programme was Rachmaninoff’s third piano concerto and Nielsen’s fourth symphony. The soloist for the Rachmaninov concerto was the Russian pianist Denis Matsuev. This performance also marked his debut with the orchestra. His account of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no. 3 was truly ravishing. His playing was crystal clear, even during Rachmaninov’s most virtuosic writing, his phrasing natural, and he never slid into the kind of sentimental, overly romantic interpretation that can easily almost ruin a piece like this concerto. Matsuev also played the longer, more difficult, original first-movement cadenza. His use of pedal, however, was a tad too liberal and often managed to blur out some of the virtuosic passages. 

The orchestra, on the other hand, sounded muffled at times, especially the strings in dynamics below mezzo-forte, but in the louder tutti sections of the piece, they had a large, dark tone that sounded very good. Especially the introduction of the second movement was played magnificently. The winds also had a tendency of almost disappearing behind a wall of piano, especially during louder sections of the piece, but this may just as well be because of the hall’s rather poor acoustic. The balance between the orchestra and the soloist was very uneven and the piano was often on the verge of drowning out the orchestra. Still, the orchestra was generally heard when they needed to be, and with such brilliant piano playing, I found I didn’t really mind. Having finished the third movement with a finale so fast that it almost left the audience gasping for breath, the hall erupted into applause, and Matsuev came back to play two encores. The first one was yet more Rachmaninov, the Prelude in A flat minor, but the second was perhaps the more successful encore of the two: a paraphrase over Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King, much to the delight of the audience.

Both the soloist and the orchestra were absolutely marvellous at Thursday’s concert, and with such a magnificent debut, I hope it won’t be long before Matsuev plays in Oslo again.

Submitted by Aksel Tollåli on 7th November 2012

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