Who would have thought it possible? Last night at the Dayton Philharmonic, soloist Emile Naoumoff transformed the sweet little Grieg concerto, that mainstay of my youth, from student competition piece - or at best, the "big brother" of the Schumann - to "THE GREATEST CONCERTO EVER WRITTEN," in a performance shockingly over the top, beyond committed, so far out on the limb that they had to build new limb, legendary and unforgettable. My daughter, for whom classical music ranks marginally above Mantovani and somewhere below dissecting frogs, was literally in tears throughout much of it. I found myself swearing out loud, "Holy f___! WHAT WAS THAT?!?!" while yelling "Bravo!" at the conclusion. The performance made the Tchaikovsky 5 on the second half seem like an afterthought, however well-executed it was.
I was reminded of Mr. Bernstein, who urged us onward at Tanglewood with the thought that "Any sound is possible," and of my own piano teacher, Ted Lettvin, who insisted, "Make a sound I've never heard before." One might have found Mr. Naoumoff's physical histrionics unconvincing and on the wrong side of good taste, but I bought into the whole approach within the first 5 minutes. It wasn't flashy, hand-wise; it wasn't fast (good Lord, it was the antithesis of fast!), it was hyper-dramatic - again, perhaps not everyone's cup of tea - but he sold it, clearly believed in it and I found it irresistible. I became a believer again, not just in the piece itself, but in the possibility that one who has been attending concerts for 55 years from NY to Beijing and back, could still be surprised, delighted and awed. By frikkin' Grieg, of all things. In Dayton.
To describe the performance further would be to diminish it, so I'll leave it at that. I hope to bring some of that crazy to Elgar this week, even though "Elgar" and "crazy" might seem incompatible notions. They aren't, as we discovered in rehearsal on the 1st Symphony this past week. Some of the writing is crazy hard, the music crazy beautiful, the architecture crazy aspirational. We're going to go for it. If Naoumoff + Grieg + Dayton can = WOW, Philharmonia + Elgar + CCM can at least aim in that direction.
Party on! - MG
I was reminded of Mr. Bernstein, who urged us onward at Tanglewood with the thought that "Any sound is possible," and of my own piano teacher, Ted Lettvin, who insisted, "Make a sound I've never heard before." One might have found Mr. Naoumoff's physical histrionics unconvincing and on the wrong side of good taste, but I bought into the whole approach within the first 5 minutes. It wasn't flashy, hand-wise; it wasn't fast (good Lord, it was the antithesis of fast!), it was hyper-dramatic - again, perhaps not everyone's cup of tea - but he sold it, clearly believed in it and I found it irresistible. I became a believer again, not just in the piece itself, but in the possibility that one who has been attending concerts for 55 years from NY to Beijing and back, could still be surprised, delighted and awed. By frikkin' Grieg, of all things. In Dayton.
To describe the performance further would be to diminish it, so I'll leave it at that. I hope to bring some of that crazy to Elgar this week, even though "Elgar" and "crazy" might seem incompatible notions. They aren't, as we discovered in rehearsal on the 1st Symphony this past week. Some of the writing is crazy hard, the music crazy beautiful, the architecture crazy aspirational. We're going to go for it. If Naoumoff + Grieg + Dayton can = WOW, Philharmonia + Elgar + CCM can at least aim in that direction.
Party on! - MG
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