MUSIC REVIEW : Feltsman Offers ‘Emperor’ With the Orange County Symphony

While about 60 minutes north by freeway fellow Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin made his much-awaited Los Angeles debut at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Vladimir Feltsman was making his first appearance in the not-so-glamorous confines of Don Wash Auditorium.

What was Feltsman, the internationally acclaimed, much-recorded, much-filmed former Soviet pianist doing in Garden Grove? He may have asked that himself more than once before the evening was over.

The Orange County Symphony of Garden Grove had either scored a coup, or come up with the money, or both, to get Feltsman there to perform with the ensemble Saturday night, in the first concert of its modestly proportioned seventh season. The program booklet and leaflets listed sponsor after sponsor, as did an announcement before the concert, which had helped make it all possible.

The pairing of this pianist with this orchestra--certainly at this stage of its development little more than a grade B ensemble--proved something of an obvious mismatch, like having Orel Hershiser pitch for the local little league team. But this didn’t deter Feltsman from offering a completely authoritative reading of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto.

His sound, when he wanted it to, could dwarf the orchestra’s. And from note one, his view of the piece seemed clear. His was a big, bravura performance, never overblown but exuberantly dramatic, polished in execution, broad in concept yet seemingly spontaneous in detail.

He brought individuality and nuance even to thunderous declamations. In more intimate moments he could be playful, even whimsical, throwing in an accent here, jabbing at a rhythm there and almost casually changing tempos. When he needed to, he coaxed a luxuriant, rhapsodic lyricism.

Feltsman appeared, by turns, inspired by and impatient with the orchestra. Music director Edward Peterson led a sometimes thoroughly competent accompaniment, though at others it proved out of tune, ragged and/or hollow sounding. Still, while no one would mistake this orchestra for the London Symphony, it supported Feltsman with general neatness and apparent enthusiasm.

The anti-climactic climax to the concert was a surely paced, overly brassy account of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. Even though rough edges could be heard, this was overall a confident and handsomely played reading, with the string section turning in some especially solid work. Peterson and a reduced orchestra opened the evening with a tidy and pleasantly vigorous performance of Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” Overture.