The past two days (04 and 05 April 2000) I attended two concerts in
the Athens Concert Hall with Gergiev conducting the Kirov Orchestra in
Debussy/La Mer, Scriabin/Poem of Exstasy and Prokofiev/5th Symphony (04
April) and Mahler 6th (05 April).  Well, the last think I could say is that
the orchestra could not follow his strange (indeed) conducting technique
(he conducted with baton as well as with waving).  This means that the
result was magnificient mainly in the russian pieces.

Scriabin was really exstatic and it reminded me the Mitropoulos'
performances (mainly the NYPO live performance of 1953 on AS DISC).  This
is how this particular Scriabin work should be conducted and not as Boulez'
et al.  are actually reading it.

Prokofiev's 5th was a miracle of precision, virtuosity and musicality.
The audience went wild and called him back on stage four times.  He
finally played the Act III Prelude to Lohengrin!!  Magnificent!

Mahler's 6th was of course a challenge for Gergiev who, as far as I know,
has not till now much conducted Mahler.  The overall impression was
positive although it seemed that most of his care was the faultless and
virtuosic performance rather than the discovery of Mahler's inner world.
But I consider that he is doing a hard work after all.

Thanks,
Alexandros Rigas
Athens, Greece