Kazuki Conducts Rachmaninoff, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 4 October, 2023.

4****: David Gray & Paul Gray.

Prokofiev, Symphony No. 1 (Classical)

Saint-Saens, Piano Concerto No. 2

Rachmaninoff, Symphonic Dances

Conductor, Kazuki Yamada asked the audience if they would be OK with a little introductory speech before the concert. Of course they would! Kazuki’s lovely little introductions to concerts are becoming a welcome addition to Symphony Hall’s musical life; always charming, funny, informative and indicative of his passion to engage with his listeners. A breath of fresh air.

He highlighted to us how two of the pieces, Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances were both written by Russians at the height of the brutal First & Second World Wars. However, listening to these works, this is not a thought that might naturally occur.

The opening work, the Prokofiev symphony, is a gossamer of pure and exuberant joy. And if there is a conductor living today who can breathe joy into music, Kazuki Yamada is your man. His orchestra perfectly caught the airy headlong rush of the outer movements, never losing sight of the need for precision in a work of such textural complexity. The ensemble was tight but also playful. Musical ideas were tossed from section to section with a seeming abandon that belied the technical command required to carry it off. Delightful.

Indeed, another thing we have come to love about Kazuki are the lovely lil’ dances & Jiggs he performs on the podium when the music is particularly dancy or syncopated. And he doesn’t stop there: he then adds a veritable choreography of sweet flourishes, jabbings & mini-pokes with baton, fingers and hands; simply glorious.

The short Larghetto second movement was performed with a wonderful combination of lyricism and poise. Here, one could tell that Prokofiev was also a composer of ballet. The symphony was a charming & joyous opening to the concert. It is clear: Birmingham is very much falling in love with - and under the spell of - Maestro Kazuki.

The Saint-Saens is a strange work. Opening with a big flourish & substantial cadenza for the pianist, it seems to want to end before it has even started. Where is the thematic material? What are we supposed to be working with? The opening movement does not really answer these questions. The composer seems to want to channel the big, dark, outrageously virtuosic concertos of other romantic composers, but ends up writing more of a fantasia for piano with the orchestra providing the odd structural intervention & textual colouration.

The idea that this is a concerto involving both soloist and orchestra gains more traction in the charming middle movement and tempestuous finale.

Soloist, Fazil Say perfectly caught the dark romantic feel of the work, playing with considerable richness of tone and a deep engagement in its emotional core. Alas, this resulted in some rather smudgy passage work, particularly in the first movement, which marred what was otherwise a passionate and deeply committed performance.

Written for the Philadelphia Orchestra – with their legendary silken strings – Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances is a good fit for the CBSO’s velvety, yet muscular string sound. As a whole, the orchestra seized the opportunity to show off both its beauty and its metal.

Woodwind soloists shone as always - in particular, the delicious, extended solo from saxophonist Kyle Horsh. It was also good to hear the horns providing a rich and sonorous texture, without the creaking and cracking that sometimes mars their sound. It is to be hoped this augers a new chapter of excellence for the horn section.

The Symphonic Dances is not a particularly well-constructed piece of music. Also, so much of Rachmaninoff as “supreme melodist” & dramaturgist seems to be missing. At its heart this is a work written for overall orchestral effect. And it employs a massive orchestra, and with many - sometimes virtuosic - solo passages woven (albeit in a very egalitarian way) around many individual players (or specific sections). Clearly Rachmaninoff wrote this as an orchestral showstopper which aims for massive effect & impact. Indeed, given all the glorious soloing going on, the work almost feels like a Concerto for Orchestra.

And the players of the CBSO rose magnificently to the challenges of both this concept and to their extraordinary conductor’s imaginative and similarly virtuosic interpretation. Kazuki enabled us to understand the work as a kind of journey, complete with quotes of the Dies Irae melody in the final movement. Quite why the Dies Irae is featured at this point is rather uncertain. Still, I suppose it worked well for him in other, highly successfully works during his career, so why not use it here?!

Exceptionally fine playing by the CBSO and an exceptional interpretation by their new Principal Conductor. Kazuki also chose a wonderfully appropriate encore – a similarly orchestral showpiece for orchestra, which we think might have been a particularly loud and rumbustious dance from a ballet by Khachaturian.

Kazuki Yamada – Conductor

Fazil Say – Piano

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra