Orchestra, guest hit 'honest' notes in second concert

by: JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
10/20/2008 12:00 AM

Conductor David Lockington was describing the first piece the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra performed Saturday when he said it was "emotionally satisfying — and with real, honest notes."

But that characterization also fit the other works the orchestra presented in its second concert of the season. And in the case of the Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major by Prokofiev, as performed by guest artist Alexander Ghindin, we're talking a whole lot of real, honest notes played extraordinarily well.

Ghindin has won several of the world's top piano competitions, the 2007 Cleveland International competition the most recent, and it wasn't difficult to see why after his performance Saturday at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.

He is one of those rare pianists who combines great expressiveness with finely honed technique, so that every note he plays is struck with laser-like precision, yet each passage is so perfectly phrased that the music sounds as if he is improvising on the spot — that the soloist is not so much playing along with the orchestra as challenging it, dueling with it.

Ghindin made Prokofiev's concerto sound not like music that had been memorized, but music that had been internalized, producing not a "performance" but a natural expression. When Prokofiev's music turned comic and playfulness, Ghindin would toss off phrases and fillips with a jaunty insouciance; when things became dark and somber, Ghindin's attack gave the sense of great sadness just barely held in check.

And the speed and stamina he showed throughout the piece — and the Prokofiev third is a bit like the piano concerto as extreme sports in what it requires of the player — had the crowd gasping in shock and admiration.

Ghindin responded to the very heartfelt standing ovation he received with an encore that was completely surprising and completely wonderful — John Philip Sousa's "The Stars and Stripes Forever," performed in a way that can only be described as orchestral.

Saturday's concert was dedicated to the memory of Patti Johnson Wilson, whose generosity toward the arts in general, and symphonic music in particular, knew no bounds. No doubt she would been especially pleased by Ghindin's performance, as she was a most accomplished pianist herself.
________________________________________
James D. Watts Jr. 581-8478
james.watts@tulsaworld.com

Copyright © 2008, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved