Dmitri Hvorostovsky's recitals have always tended to be grand occasions, carefully programmed and executed with immense flair and style. His latest, however, proved to be more equivocal. The all-Russian programme prefaced Shostakovich's Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarotti with a group of Rachmaninov songs, ordered so as to create an emotional narrative of desire, disillusionment and spiritual solitude. This opening group, surprisingly, wasn't as impressive as it might have been.
Rachmaninov's songs are essentially amorous, and the seeming spontaneity of Hvorostovsky's delivery has always fitted well with his heart-throb image. On this occasion, however, skin-tight trousers and a few bits of bling gave the impression of slightly over-cultivated glamour. And he used a score for music that on previous occasions he has performed from memory. His voice was in good shape, and there were some exceptional insights. But passion loses its directness, I'm afraid, when expressed by someone whose eyes are frequently straying to their music stand. Hvorostovsky has made much more of an impact in Rachmaninov on previous occasions.
Shostakovich's song cycle fared much better. During the interval, Hvorostovsky exchanged his designer dinner jacket for a simple black shirt. His use of a score proved less intrusive in a work that is essentially meditative. A direct examination of the relationship between the artist and the state that equates the idea of personal immortality with the judgments of posterity, the cycle has a declamatory quality far removed from Hvorostovsky's usual lyricism. But he delivered it with a furious intensity that did much to compensate for the evening's awkward first half. It brought out the best in his pianist Ivari Ilja, too – a fine player of Rachmaninov, but hard-hitting and quite genuinely inspired when it comes to Shostakovich.
