Blown away by marvellous Moscow Philharmonic

Most concerts I attend have a feelgood factor about them, writes Garry Fraser, and the performance of the Moscow Philharmonic on Saturday in Perth Concert Hall was no exception.

A feeling of contentment oozed through me from the opening bars to the closing chord of a selection from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Suite which opened and closed the concert. It was a splendid evening and once again Perth Festival of the Arts provided the ideal way to bring the curtain down on another top-class series of performances.

While the orchestra did everything to ensure an evening of musical bliss, so did one keyboard genius. Freddy Kempf is one of those pianists who gets to grips with the music from the start and such a work like Rachmaninov’s Third concerto is the ideal vehicle for someone like Kempf to exercise his prodigious talents.

The calm opening bars lead you into a false sense of security, as the opening movement soon morphs into a whirlwind of musical splendour, demanding skill from the soloist and undying support from the orchestra.

This mix was quite heady at times, and it was a combination that led to one of the most exciting, dynamic and sit-up-and-take-notice performances I’ve heard of this magical work.

What followed was equally earthshattering. Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition has possibly one of the greatest endings in classical music, the Great Gate of Kiev.

The imagery before that isn’t bad either, like the Unhatched Chicks, the ponderous Bydlo and the frenzied perpetual motion of the Market Place. It’s a tremendous work, but its shine was given extra gloss by a performance out of the top drawer.