The last of Leif Ove Andsnes's three Barbican concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra and Michael Tilson Thomas was an all-Russian affair. Andsnes was the soloist in Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto, while Tilson Thomas began the programme with an arcane piece of Rimsky-Korsakov and ended it with Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony.
Andsnes is a fine, if over-hyped, pianist. He has fast, unerring fingers - this account of the Rachmaninov, one of the most technically challenging concertos in the repertory, was note-perfect - and sound musical instincts. However, he doesn't show much inclination to probe deeply into what he plays. The opening here was elegant and brisk, but distinctly undercharacterised; there was no sense of mystery, no steadily accumulating tension.
The first movement and much of the intermezzo were also bland; they weren't short on confidence or direction, just low on gravitas. It wasn't until Andsnes reached the faster interlude in the slow movement that he really began to get a grip on the music. After a spring-heeled launching of the finale, there was no holding him. He hurtled to the end with plenty of panache, but without leaving much else for the audience to take away.
Rimsky's Dubinushka is a strange, late piece from 1905, an elaboration of a Russian bargee's song that had become a symbol of the revolutionary movement. It was designed as a rousing concert opener, which was exactly how Tilson Thomas delivered it here. But his Shostakovich was similarly brash, pushing the march-like climax of the Fifth's first movement so hard that it overstepped the line between savage parody and caricature. The scherzo became a balletic exercise, athletic and exaggeratedly colourful.
That approach could not be carried through convincingly into the largo, but Tilson Thomas had left himself little room to manoeuvre. Even with superb solo playing from the LSO's woodwind, there was no real sense that this movement was the emotional centre of gravity of the whole symphony. It was just a temporary respite before the slam-bang brilliance resumed in the finale.
