the Cento

On Friday, Jan. 13, the Norton Center hosted the St. Petersburg State Orchestra in Newlin Hall. After six recent performances in St. Petersburg, the orchestra’s show at Centre was the first of their six-week tour here in America.

With approximately 100 performers on stage, the scope of the performance was quite large. “They’re a really robust Russian orchestra,” Norton Center Director Steve Hoffman said. “With so many musicians, they can perform some really powerful big-name pieces.”

Indeed, big-name pieces dominated the two and a half hour show, including Wagner’s “Prelude” and “Liebestod” from the opera Tristan and Isolde, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 19 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 to top it all off.

To give a sense of scale, the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra is roughly the same size as the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (VPO) was when they visited Centre. “Because of the size of orchestra required for Mahler’s fifth symphony, [hearing it performed live] is a particularly rare opportunity,” Hoffman said. “It should certainly hold our attention.”

However, this orchestra was undoubtedly less difficult to arrange than the VPO.

“We work with one of the largest classical music agencies in the country,” Hoffman said. “All we had to do was prepare for their arrival.”

In regards to their reputation, Hoffman said, “They don’t have the longstanding reputation that the VPO does, but they do provide a very similar experience to their audience.” Of Roman Leontiev, the orchestra’s music director and chief conductor, Hoffman said, “He is very acclaimed and a core part of their group, unlike [Gustavo] Dudamel who was a guest conductor for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.”

This familiarity definitely contributed to the smoothness of Friday’s performance. “I liked the conductor,” junior music minor Raelynn Brown said. “He seemed very composed and led the orchestra well. I noticed a couple of notes that felt slightly misplaced, but nothing big.” Brown said that she was particularly fond of their expansive string section.

Junior music major Riley Puckett also attended the performance. “My favorite piece was the Mahler symphony,” Puckett said. “For me, the first two pieces seemed like generic and typical classical music. The Mahler broke the mold and made really good use of the whole orchestra. I especially loved being able to feel the timpani, and the percussion in the symphony was the coolest part. And of course the triangle player was awesome.”

Puckett also enjoyed listening to pianist Alexander Pirozhenko. “He was really cool to watch and very skilled,” Puckett said.

Brown disagreed. “The piano wasn’t my favorite part. The playing was fine, but I don’t particularly like the combination of piano and orchestra for that particular piece,” she said.

Brown also said that the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra was “on the same level as many of the orchestras that come here. However, it’s sometimes hard to compare when they play different pieces.”

“Overall, I enjoyed it,” Brown said. She was especially enthusiastic about the opportunity to witness performances like this one without having to purchase a ticket.

“I love going to orchestras, and I really appreciate that Centre students get to see these kinds of performances all the time.”

The appreciation for the wide variety of convocations to which students have access is evident and is undoubtedly a large part of what keeps important players and big-name performances coming to Centre College. Though perhaps not as big a name as the VPO, the St. Petersburg State Orchestra honors us by launching their tour from Centre our campus.