By John Toedtman
Enquirer contributor

The centerpiece of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra concert this weekend was that giant of piano concertos, the Rachmaninoff Third.

The grand finale is so explosive, that, if well played, almost always elicits an ovation from the audience. The Cincinnati audience did indeed accord Russian pianist Alexander Toradze a prolonged standing ovation, but questions of style and taste will plague this reviewer for some time.

During the frequent solo excursions for the piano in all three movements, Mr. Toradze slowed the pulse almost to a halt, and the forward motion of this great piece seemed to need the aid of a pacemaker to avoid cardiac arrest.

There is a fine line between artistic license and creativity of the pianist and lack of respect for the intentions of the composer. Mr. Toradze displays a beautiful lyricism of tone and melody, but the overall architecture of the concerto was distorted by such extremes of tempi. When attempting to discern the composer's wishes we have Rachmaninoff's own recorded playing of the Third Concerto to show that he always maintained a forward drive and energy in the work. As always Maestro Jarvi provided the soloist with a consummate accompaniment. At all times he was one with the piano.

The program opened with a stunning performance of Ravel's urbane, sophisticated and very French, La Valse, proof-positive that under the direction of Maestro Jarvi, the CSO is experiencing a great renaissance.

La Valse opens with a droning bass tone that slowly evolves to the lilt of a waltz. The technical elements of the waltz are all present but there is a restraint to the music and the typical joie de vivre of the Viennese Strauss waltz is missing. The combination of freedom and control by the conductor produced a near-perfect performance and was about the best playing from the CSO to date.

The program closed with a beautiful performance of a rarely heard work by the Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius, the Lemminkainen Suite.

The four legends of the suite are meant to evoke images of the mythical folk hero Lemminkainen and his adventures. Composed in 1895 the publishing of this work contributed to a sense of Finnish nationalism and further established Sibelius as the preeminent composer of Finland. Maestro Jarvi supplied an athletic yet warm approach to the music.