Tonight's concert was probably the weakest of the season so far. The first piece was the Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, as arranged by Stokowski. Guest conductor Stéphane Denève chose a lumbering temp that, combined with Stokowski's over-orchestration, sucked all the life out of the piece.
Weak conducting also harmed the Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2, which is one of his lesser works to begin with, and certainly a challenge for an audience. Sergey Khachatryan gave an excellent performance nonetheless.
The highlight of the evening was the Dvorák Symphony No. 8, which conveyed the most energy of the evening, particularly in the 4th movement. The orchestra seemed better focused than the conductor.
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