The annual Gergiev festival in Rotterdam, The Netherlands is under way
since thursday, and I can just say: O Whow....

This year's festival centers on Sergei Prokofiev, the central theme
being: Prokofiev, the Prodigal son.  This refers of course not only to
his ballet with the same name, but also to his returning to Russia in
the thirties.

For 10 days we are hearing nothing but Prokofiev: all of his symphonies,
a big part of his ballet music and film scores, the majority of his
piano music, some chamber music, opera.  Everything topped of with film
presentations, lectures, discussion, exhibition and so on.  A unique
opportunity to really get into the composer.  The honours are split
between the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the St.  Petersburg Mariinsky
Theater Orchestra, featuring Olga Borodina, Janine Jansen, Frederick
Chiu, and many more, almost everything under the baton of Valeri Gergiev,
Prokofiev champion second to none.

Information is available on www.gergievfestival.com

Last thursday the festival was kicked off by the Scythian suite.  And
kicked off is to be understood literally.  It is a wonder the roof of
"De Doelen" is still in place after the most pagan piece Prokofiev ever
wrote.  Gergiev remarked that it seems to be him something of a challenge
by the young Prokofiev against e.g.  the more arrivee Stravinsky of Le
Sacre.  Where the recent Rotterdam Philharmonic performance of the same
piece at the London Proms was making up with noise a little lack of
coherence, everything seemed to be in place here.  Maybe the lesser
coustics of the Albert Hall played their bit in this.  Next we had Le
Pas d'Acier and the neglected Chant Symphonique.  The biggest hit to
me of the evening was the second symphony.  After an immaculate crispy
performance I can now well understand why Prokofiev kept insisting this
to be a very valuable piece. All the recordings of this symphony that
I know of (Jarvi, Rostropovitch, Ozawa) make a very messy job of this
interesting piece.  It turns out to be "experimental" in but only a few
aspects.  The "experimentality" in the recordings I just mentioned may
come more from the fact that especially Jarvi and Ozawa don't have a
clue what the piece can look like, a situation comparable with, say
Shostakovitch 4th symphony.  Not so with Gergiev: a shape begins to
emerge, which, although not really classical in the sense of historical
concept is very much classical in its mentality: economical, clear and
balanced.  Again: just like Shostakovitsj 4th.

It just shows that there is still a lot of prejudice against Prokofiev
the symphonist,

Friday, I had looked forward very much to Alexander Toradze's appearance
in the fifth piano concerto.  Because of an injury, he was replaced by
Gianluca Cascioli.  A fine young Italian player who delivered a great
tongue-in-cheeck performance.  Had he put on a Tiroler hat, he could
have well passed for Chico Marx.  A bit superficial perhaps, but such
big fun !  We also had the Mariinsky play Prokofiev's 3 rd symphony.
A bit less succesfull, mainly because the orchestra looked a bit tired
and therefore slightly unbalanced at times.  Nevertheless, this symphony
equally shows Prokofiev at his best.  It is of course a reconception of
some of the music of The Fiery Angel, however truely justified on its
merits as a symphony.  Again: a prejudged listerner will ponder at the
cacophonisms, the experimental sounds in strings and far out orchestral
combinations, but under that lies a strict concept.  Also, the third
symphony shows Prokofiev in a fine melodic shape. Talk about prejudice:
an otherwise nice elderly lady remarked to me during the interval that
she heartily disliked Prokofiev because of his fondness for strange
dissonants, but she forgave Gergiev, because she could see that he
believes in this music....  Which brings me to the downside of friday
night: we started that concert off with a suite from "On the Dnjepr".
This, to me, shows the orchestral Prokofiev on his weakest: once the
melodic inventiveness dries out, we are presented with music that never
seems "to take off".  The orchestra's form, as pointed out above, did
not help either.

Saturday, it was the Rotterdam playing the (almost) complete Romeo and
Juliet.  This warhorse really stays at the top, no matter what happens....
What a great showpiece, rich in colour and variation.  Having said that,
I was (again) struck by the fact that under the surface, Prokofiev also
in this piece manages brilliantly to keep the structure together and
make brilliant use of the basic musical material.  How well Gergiev
managed to bring to the surface the connections between movements/dances,
how well he shows the transformation of e.g.  the Juliet theme throughout
the whole piece.  And how well did the Rotterdam play for him!  Just try
to make a group of a few dozen string players do a crescendo on a flagolet
note in exactly the same way!  Gergiev can, and the Rotterdam will do
it for him, seemingly effortless!

As in London, Gergiev's new "baton" also raised a few eyebrows over here.
He seemed to be really using a toothpick on thursday and saturday!  On
friday, he must have visted the local Chinese takeaway because he was
using what looked like a wooden sateh-stick.  Being asked about it, he
said he believed it even raised the players attention to his directions
further.  And so it did on three nights running, so who are we to moan
about it?

During the afternoons, as said, we are constantly treated to a variety
of piano and chamber music, mostly played by relatively young new
musicians.  One staying memory: young British Freddy Kempff in the
Visions Fugitives.  Watch out for him: he is going places!

Wow, not even even halfway through the festival, and already so much to
ponder on.

1.  Why don't more people see the greatness of of the classicist Prokofiev

2.  Why are people so prejudiced against the bigger part of the Prokofiev
symphonies.

3.  How can it be arranged that the Mariinsky musicians don't have to
travel so much (maybe they should get a pay rise?) so that they will be
less tired.

4.  Why don't the Rotterdam Philharmonic have a permanent CD contract

5.  What can we do to make Gergiev stay in Rotterdam when his contract
expires next year.

By the way: there a still tickets for some of the upcoming events.  And
if you are to far away: Go to the above mentioned website and look for
the link to our Dutch classical radio station (Radio 4).  On their page
is a possibility to join in for online live listening to most of the
evening concerts.

Must put my laptop away now, I can hear the Mariinsky orchestra tuning
for the Prodigal Son Ballet.

regards, Jos