This year’s Euskadi Symphony Orchestra’s subscription cycle is over and, indeed, it has left us a good taste of mouth. This last programme had everything: masterpieces, a great soloist, and above all, illusion and courage in the interpretations.

Those of us who play the piano know that Serguei Rakhmaninov has put 3. That the small concert is a real challenge for any soloist. In this sheet we find difficulties of all kinds: technical devils, high noise demands and, with this panorama, achieving a natural phrasing is almost impossible. But for Russian pianist Alexei Volodin, all that was silly. This artist, born in St. Petersburg, has numerous awards (among which the Géza Anda Prize of Zurich 2003 stands out) and a lot of resources to carry out this work. He saved technical difficulties in comfort, offered a transparent and fleshy sound at all times and, indeed, offered an impressive musical flow. We have rarely heard this work of Rakhmaninov so transparent and so natural. On the other hand, as I have said many times, the acoustics of the Main Theatre of Vitoria-Gasteiz are very bad, but in spite of everything, the sound of Volodin became round and nice, impeccable. The Orchestra of the Basque Country was able to elegantly surround the soloist, obtaining adequate sound volumes and making a balanced reading of the work. The merit of Treviño, no doubt. Volodin offered a pair of bis. Two fascinating, perfect pieces from Scriabin.

The second part of the programme was quite good, but the truth is that it was not too frightening. Tchaikovsky 5. Symphony in my youngest op. 64 is a beautiful, great, perfect, melodious work… and the version of the Basque Orchestra was worldwide. Robert Treviño's influence has been very positive in recent years. It was visible in this concert. The homogeneity achieved in the rope is very evident, and the quality of the metal section has certainly been increasing. So, the interpretation of this symphony was a candy for the public. The second part was highlighted, Andante cantabile with alcot licenza, where the entrance was beautiful and the performance of the horn was perfect.

Enjoyable, real.