Last night the Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra under Alexei Kornienko played the “All Tchaikovsky Program” in Worcester. It was Hamlet Fantasy, Violin Concerto and the Pathetique.  The Moscow State Radio Symphony is fifth grade band and I normally would not go there but I need somebody something to take my mind out of my fight with my lender and the Pathetique is looks like a good reflection of it.

The Moscow State Symphony was nightmare. I cannot believe that an orchestra with THIS play has guts to play publicly and to book international trips. It was disaster in each bar and it would be a waste of time listing them of not the violinist they brought. I never heard Nadezda Tokareva nor do I ever hear about her but the play she demonstrated was absolutely out of this word.

http://www.classicalarchives.com/artist/4273.html#tv=about

It was not the play itself that was good (but it was VERY good) but Ms. Tokareva’s unwillingness to let the Orchestra to screw up her play. The soloist and Orchestra were playing like in different universes and I was listening them like karaoke, listening just Ms. Tokareva play and absolutely discarding the crap that Moscow State Radio Symphony did (Thankfully the wonderful acoustics of Mechanics Hall allow to do it) and I can tell you that Nadezda Tokareva’s play was just wonderful and I think it was the best live performance of violin part of this concerto I even heard.

Ms. Tokareva looks like what I call non- winners. The stupid musical world grand the winners of musical competitions with award and good contract but the people who did the 2-3 places are in shadow. Nadezda Tokareva looks like did not win any flashy musical competitions but does it make her less valuable?

I tell you that the stability and confidence with which she played the concerto was truly insulting. She did not make any apparent efforts. She did not go for overly sophisticated phasing and played the “basic core” of the work. She was just a professional musician doing her dally job with dead orchestra and in shitty, forgotten by God, town of West Massachusetts. And what the Job is was!!!

I am not king – it was practically flawless play. He missed some notes here and there and did not got for the final straw of expressionism but what he did was stunningly stable and a feeling the there is a LOT of behind if would be a call to it. Ms. Tokareva did not “rape the strings” and played on soft side of this concerto but with very smart and graceful balance and indication of what she can do and how far she is willing to go under current performing conditions. The remarkable thing was that when she indicated that she is able to play it with all hear down then she did it with absolutely the same level of ease and she did everything else. A truly stable and wonderful player!!!