Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury,16 October 2015

It makes a real difference when Dvorak is in the hands of a Czech.   Jakub Hrusa really knows how to bring out all the delicious melodiousness of the seventh symphony. And it works especially well in those hallmark Dvorakian passages when lower strings are alternated with tuneful brass blasts, all very well played. The opening allegro pounded along with energy and the adagio presented an elegant contrast to both the movements which flank it. Then came a well-balanced finale. The symphony was a fitting end to a memorable concert.

We’d started with the overture to Prince Igor, a jolly piece – less familiar perhaps than the Polovtsian dances –  which may owe more to Glazunov than Borodin who was always pretty busy with his day job as a scientist. The result, whatever its provenance is cheerfully episodic and full of lights, darks and contrasts with plenty of dynamic range – played here with panache.

And so to the centrepiece of the concert: Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto played by a Daniil Trifonov, a young Russian, aged 26 who is making a huge name for himself – concerts with the world’s finest orchestras and a Deutsche Grammophon recording contract.  Geeky looking, bespectacled and hunched, he crouched over the piano like a stalking animal, his hands moving in fluid arcs. He was of course, totally on top of this (late) romantic pot boiler which he interpreted with liberal rubato. The opening crescendo was beautifully articulated and he maximised the melodic honey of the adagio. There was an energetic passion in the third movement which (just)  stopped short of becoming too mannered.  And the fat ralentando just before the end was suitably dramatic.

It may be invidious to single out performers in the concert which was as generally fine as this but I’m going to do it anyway. Principal flautist Samuel Cole has so much solo work in these three works that he probably played more bars than required by any flute concerto. And he did a magnificent job. Second, the sound of the Philharmonia’s lower strings is glorious and they too shone through in each of these three works. Principal cello, Karen Stephenson and principal bass, Dominic Worsley are to be warmly congratulated.

Susan Elkin