Trifonov takes on Prokofiev's biggest challenge

The NSO and Daniil Trifonov warm-up at home before heading to Carnegie Hall next week.

Gianandrea Noseda and the NSO, 4/13/2023. Above: Daniil Trifonov. Photos by Scott Suchman.

With music director Gianandrea Noseda back in town, the National Symphony Orchestra is gearing up for some high-profile programs, not least being next week’s appearance in Carnegie Hall, where they’ll repeat this week’s offering of Walker, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky. Centered around superstar pianist Daniil Trifonov, the NSO sounded pressed but virtuosic Thursday night.  

The opening number, George Walker’s Sinfonia No. 4, was similar to his first three (the NSO has committed to eventually recording all five of these works, in order).  Walker (1922-2018), a Curtis-trained DC native and among the first important African-American composers, likely attracted attention -- i.e., commissions and awards – back during the anything-goes 1960’s and 70’s with his thorny, dissonant style; but there is precious little here for actual music-lovers. Sinfonia No. 4 has a simulacrum of familiarity; clear phrases, coherent changes in texture and mood, etc. But with no identifiable logic to the notes or harmonies, the mind’s ear quickly shuts down and waits for it to be over. The brief, gentle interlude with an almost-tonal cello solo only served to point up what was wrong with the rest of the piece.     

The Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2, is the longest and most formidable of the five he wrote. The first movement incorporates a vast cadenza of almost psychotic difficulty (much of it having to be notated on three staves instead of two), the second a brisk toccata where the hands play in running sixteenth-notes an octave apart throughout, the third a dour, march-like intermezzo, and the finale a helter-skelter chase between the soloist and orchestra. It is a Himalayan challenge (even titans like Richter and Argerich steered clear); the best modern recording is by (no surprise) Yuja Wang, who sinks her teeth into it from the first bars and never lets go. Thus I looked forward with much anticipation to see what Trifonov, one of the supreme pianists of our time, would do with it. What emerged, though, was something of a disappointment. While he clearly has all the technique the piece needs, the Russian/American handled it somewhat gingerly. Other than the finale, tempos were moderate, and in the Intermezzo downright sluggish. The big cadenza built up impressively indeed, but he often seemed to be looking for dark corners or deeper meaning in the music, slowing down in “expressive” spots, including in the jerky, puppet-like second theme of the first movement. There was certainly some amazing playing; the volcanic climax of the cadenza, the clarity of passagework in the toccata, and the hellfire acrobatics in the opening of the finale. The third movement has a passage where the piano accompanies the woodwinds in a series of alternating glissandos and fingered arpeggios; in Trifonov’s hands, you could not hear any difference. Magical.  

Noseda accompanied closely, but in both the first and last movements he set tempos that Trifonov immediately altered when he entered. Not good. On Friday night’s performance, they’re doing the Scriabin Concerto instead of the Prokofiev; why, I couldn’t imagine. It ate up rehearsal time (more on this in a moment), they’re not doing it in Carnegie, and Friday’s audience is missing out on the big kahuna.  

Trifonov’s encore, the Myra Hess arrangement of Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” helped calm the near-frantic ovation, and revealed still more keyboard mastery as three limpid voices emerged from his two hands as though played on three different instruments.    

Stravinsky’s Firebird ballet shot the young composer to superstardom; though Petrushka and Le sacre du Printemps, which followed immediately, are more “radical,” Firebird was a work of indisputable genius, Stravinsky having assimilated everything his teacher, Rimsky-Korsakov, could teach him, then incorporating the advances of Ravel and Debussy. The complete ballet is not performed that often in concert, as the scenario isn’t well-known to most audiences and some of the connecting-tissue music is of lesser inspiration. But there are wonderful set-pieces in it that we don’t get from the popular Firebird Suite, such as the Capture of the Firebird and the Princesses’ Danse. So it was good to hear. The NSO played the original 1910 version, which has some oddities and “things missing” to ears accustomed to the composer’s later revisions. But every encounter with this masterpiece is enjoyable.

It would’ve been still more enjoyable if Noseda had let up on the NSO a bit. His intensity on the podium brings mixed results, some music benefitting and other music crying out for breathing-room. It is a virtuoso orchestra now, but Noseda’s stabbing approach and need for complete control sometimes leads to fissures, with small flubs in ensemble or solos. Almost all the tempos were a click or two faster than the orchestra was used to, and by the end everyone seemed tired. Whether some of the Scriabin rehearsal time could’ve been put to better use having the NSO and its just-returned boss re-acquaint themselves better, I couldn’t say. But things will need to settle in a bit before next week, or the Carnegie visit will not show this group at its best.