As a birthday treat six months ago John gave me 2 tickets to an RSNO (Royal Scottish National Orchestra) concert. With my friend Val we headed into the city for an evening of music and the odd glass of wine.
Our walk from the train station to the concert hall left us arriving at the hall in high spirits having been part of the Saturday night throng of folk arriving into the city centre for a "gud night out". Glasgow was absolutely heaving: clubbers all glammed up (and that was the 50 year olds!), street guitarists and bongo players along with, I noticed, a few Ranger scarves on the groups of lads weaving their way along Buchanan Street.
It's been a few years since I've been in the Royal Glasgow Concert Hall. It was pretty well full (capacity 2,475) and, indeed, I always I meet folk that I know.
The highlight of the concert was Vadym Kholodenko playing Rachmaninov's 3rd paint concerto. It is 43 minutes long and known to be difficult to play. This chap, who I did not know, was to be the star for the evening.
While I had listened to the piece on U-Tube I had not googled his biographical details beforehand. As usual, the concert notes give you every city the performer has played in, every prize he has won, but little about the person himself.
Yes, it was a stunning performance for what has been described as the 'Everst' of Rachmaninov's pieces.. Indeed, it was a real marathon of piano playing! He took his bow and looked absolutely exhausted! Well... hardly surprising.
He and the conductor Thomas Søndergård bowed and were applauded by a cheering audience with shouts of "Bravo!", feet stamping, and a sprinkling of folk giving him/the orchestra a standing ovation. (One thing about Glasgow audiences, as is well known over the decades, they are 'up for it' i.e. very demonstrative!) Would he give an encore?
Yes.
This noisy, cheery full hall quietened down in respectful silence. Kholodenko sat down to play...I was expecting the usual sort of encore pieces which are... well, often are... short, showy pieces. Not this one. When we finished our applause I turned to my friend Val and said (these are my exact words) "To me, that was a lullaby." At the moment I am unable to identify it; not Brahms 'Cradle Song' and not Schubert's 'Lullaby in F'. [update here: ___________________]
It was an odd experience. The audience fervour, had, as you'd expect, completely evaporated and the hall emptied quietly into the night. My parting thoughts were "Well I suppose after 43 minutes of playing at that level what do you expect?!"
Next day:
I did some searching on the internet:
One review [12/10/2019] from Seen and Heard International website. It is by Simon Thompson with a headline:
Vadym Kholodenko displays stunning pianism in RSNO’s Rachmaninov
This is the first paragraph:
"This concert’s performance of the Third Piano Concerto didn’t quite win me over, but it went a fairly long way, and that was mostly thanks to the pretty Vadym Kholodenko, here making his debut with the RSNO. He is a strikingly concentrated pianist...." etc.
Then wanting some biographical information I came across this article of 3 years ago [March 23, 2016 Guardian newspaper] and is the last of three published during that period:
"The estranged wife of an internationally known pianist pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges that she killed the couple’s young daughters at their Texas home last week."
