Gluzman/Moser/Sudbin, Wigmore Hall, London, review: Their concert as a whole was disappointing

Vadim Gluzman on violin, Johannes Moser on cello and Yevgeny Sudbin dedicate their performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in A minor to the late Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky

Michael Church
Monday 27 November 2017 15:57 GMT
Comments
The recent death of Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, to whom the evening was dedicated, cast an inevitable pall over proceedings
The recent death of Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, to whom the evening was dedicated, cast an inevitable pall over proceedings (Catherine Ashmore)

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Before the curtain rose at the Royal Opera last Wednesday, Antonio Pappano appeared on stage to announce – to gasps of dismay from the audience – that the the Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky had died a few hours earlier, and that the evening’s performance would be dedicated to him. The memory of his great voice, said Pappano, would long resonate in the minds of all who had heard him. When violinist Vadim Gluzman introduced Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor at the Wigmore Hall two days later, he too announced that the performance would be dedicated to Hvorostovsky’s memory.

It’s a rare thing for a musician’s death to cast so long a shadow: Hvorostovsky had been suffering from brain cancer, but he was only 55 and there had always seemed something eternally youthful about him, despite the prematurely grey locks he traded on to theatrical effect. He wasn’t a great actor, and he always tended to play to the gallery, but his glorious sound and magnetic presence brought compelling magic to his Onegin, Boccanegra, and Germont père; in his song-recitals of the 19th century Russian repertoire his golden tone was incomparable.

In the event, the Tchaikovsky work chosen by Gluzman, cellist Johannes Moser, and pianist Yevgeny Sudbin proved uncannily appropriate, since it ended with a haunting funeral march, but their concert as a whole was disappointing. Schubert’s Notturno in E flat was robbed of the mystery it should have come clothed in, by Sudbin’s relentless fortissimo. Arno Babadjanian’s rarely-performed Piano Trio came over as a strenuous pastiche of sundry mid-20th-century styles, Shostakovich’s prominent among them, and the Tchaikovsky lacked nuance.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in