Saturday 22 February 2025
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
*****
A celebration of Ravel at 150 and Boulez at 100; orchestration at its most colourful and imaginative
Saturday’s concert by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester was a triple celebration: of the birthdays of two great French masters, Maurice Ravel (born 150 years ago in March 1875) and Pierre Boulez (born 100 years ago in March 1925); of the piano as a solo instrument in Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand; and of piano pieces as the foundation of much larger works for orchestra.
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Apart from the mighty organ, often referred to as the ‘King of Instruments’ – an orchestra in itself – the piano has the broadest range of timbre and dynamics and is the most versatile of any classical instrument. On Saturday, this was demonstrated by the French pianist Bertrand Chamayou in the Ravel piano concerto. Written for the French pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm during WWI, it was heroically played by Chamayou, who rested his right hand above the piano while his left hand did its incredible work. Ravel’s intention, in his own words, was to ensure that,
‘In a work of this kind, it is essential to give the impression of a texture no thinner than that of a part written for both hands.’
It was fascinating to watch Chamayou play with only one hand. From our seats, his back often shielded his left hand, but it was possible to see the reflection of his hand in the highly polished piano as it scurried up and down the keyboard, performing astonishing acrobatics. In his main cadenza in the third section of this single-movement concerto, he picked out melodies over growling, angry bass with lovely control and virtuosic chromatic playing as a hopeful theme gradually appeared out of the miasma of fretful darkness. The orchestra played its part, too, opening with a dark theme on the low basses and contrabassoon. The theme passed across the orchestra and reached an incredible climax with glowing but anxious chords before the piano came crashing in from the depths of its range. In the central Allegro section, there were some jazzy rhythms and echoes of the rhythmic intensity of Ravel’s Boléro, which was written around the same time. There was also some invigoratingly sarcastic interplay between piano and orchestra, like Shostakovich at his most cynical. The orchestra finally dared to join Chamayou after his cadenza, having the last word as it hurtled to a startlingly abrupt conclusion.
In response to well-deserved applause, Chamayou returned to announce his encore of an ‘unknown piece’, his setting of a choral piece by Ravel, Trois Beaux Oiseaux du Paradis (Three Beautiful Birds of Paradise). A simple, meditative piece for two hands, it made a lovely contrast with the rigours of the concerto.
Pierre Boulez, who died almost a decade ago, enjoyed being the enfant terrible of the classical music establishment. As Saturday’s conductor, Ludovic Morlot, told the audience, it’s amazing to see how much classical music had changed in the 50 years between the two composers. Boulez once mischievously announced that opera houses were unsuitable for modern opera, so the best solution would be to blow them up. He said that to move on as a composer, he felt he had metaphorically to ‘kill his father’ by rejecting the tenets of his teacher Olivier Messiaen. When he was only twenty, Boulez’s piano miniatures, 12 Notations for Piano, were performed by Yvette Grimaud. He forgot about them but was reminded of them over 30 years later when the French composer Serge Nigg, also a pupil of Messiaen, asked if he could perform them. Boulez decided to turn four of the pieces into works for a vast orchestra, so big that on Saturday, the stage at the Bridgewater Hall had to be extended to accommodate all the musicians. There were so many percussionists – nine in all – that they occupied every nook and cranny of a packed stage. The original piano pieces were tiny, only 12 bars long. Boulez expanded both the orchestra and the length of the pieces to become new works rather than mere orchestrations. Played in the order Boulez requested (1,4,3,2), the four pieces were explorations of orchestral colour on the grandest scale, superbly played by the expanded orchestra. There were great slabs of sound, boisterous percussion, glittering colours, incredible climaxes, and terrifyingly dense yet powerfully rhythmic and repeated structures.
The German composer and conductor Matthias Pintscher wrote,
Every time I listen to, study or conduct Boulez’s Notations, I immediately think of the other grand master of French sonic architecture: Maurice Ravel. The aesthetic proximity between Boulez and Ravel is palpable. A glance at a single detail in one of the scores by Boulez (or Ravel) explains the ‘totality’, the aura and the form of the large-scale work. This, to me, seems essentially ‘French’ – this sharpened awareness of the detail that fits into the whole architecture of the work logically as well as poetically.
Ravel’s Mother Goose (Ma Mère l’Oye) was also written as a piano suite, in this case five pieces for four hands. It’s most often performed now as an orchestral suite of five pieces, but after the Boulez Notations, conductor Ludovic Morlot turned to the audience and announced that as a special treat, the orchestra would play the complete ballet, which is ‘about six minutes longer.’ This was a pleasant surprise to the audience, although presumably not to the orchestra. The extra material consists of a Prélude, and linking passages to create one continuous movement, and an additional tableau at the start, Danse du Rouet (Dance of the Spinning Wheel). Ravel’s Suite is a series of largely unconnected fairy tales. Ravel makes the ballet a continuous narrative, the story of Sleeping Beauty. The final movement, Le Jardin Féerique (Fairy Garden), turns into an ‘apotheosis’ scene in which the prince awakens her. The fairy tales from the central movements of the Suite take place in her dreams.
The ballet allowed the orchestra to demonstrate the full range of its tonal palette and dynamic sensitivity. Ludovic Morlot is a relatively undemonstrative conductor, as he showed in his firm and committed handling of Messiaen’s epic From the Canyons to the Stars late last year. His attention to detail is extraordinary – as Pintscher suggests, the smallest detail reveals the form of the work as a whole. Forces from within the orchestra, particularly the woodwind, played perfectly together like the best of chamber ensembles. There were some characterful solos, bringing colour to the vivid fairy tales, including from John Bradbury (clarinet), Simon Davies (contrabassoon) and Zoe Beyers, the leader of the orchestra.
The concert ended with another piano suite that became an orchestral piece, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. There have been several arrangements or reworkings of the suite, which Mussorgsky wrote in 1874. It lends itself to adaptation very well, as it’s based on a series of vivid and imaginative pictures by the composer’s friend, the artist Viktor Hartmann, who died in 1873. There have been several orchestral versions, including the Ravel version which is the most often performed. There have also been some successful rock versions, including by the German thrash metal band Mekong Delta and a whimsical version by the Japanese composer and electronic music pioneer Isao Tomita. Perhaps the best non-classical version is by the English progressive rock band Emerson Lake and Palmer, which contains one of the best characterisations of The Gnome.
The Philharmonic’s performance of The Gnome was thrillingly fast and fierce, with a flurry of sound played with perfect ensemble; the creature could be heard scurrying away at the end. The opening Promenade featured the brass section playing like the finest brass bands with a lovely, sweet-toned horn. In The Old Castle, alto saxophonist Carl Raven played a mellow solo with lovely legato while the strings and woodwind brought a warmly nostalgic feel – another testament not just to the orchestral playing but the variety and subtlety of Ravel’s skill as an orchestrator. The lumbering ox cart of Bydlo drew a lovely tuba solo from Christopher Evans, creating a very vivid picture of the ‘effortful Russian work song represented by the famous Song of the Volga Boatmen’ as Robert Philip points out. Another highlight was the Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks, which had stunning woodwind, jolly strings, and a witty turn at the end. The final movement, The Great Gate of Kiev, was the perfect climax to an outstanding performance.
Repertoire
Pierre Boulez Notations 1–4 (orchestral version)
Maurice Ravel Mother Goose – complete ballet
Maurice Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
Modest Mussorgsky, orch. Maurice Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition
Performers
Ludovic Morlot conductor
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Bertrand Chamayou piano
Sources
Robert Philip, The Classical Music Lover’s Companion to Orchestral Music (Yale University Press, 2020)
Matthias Pintscher, Boulez – Notations I-IV for orchestra: Work Introduction (Universal Edition)
Programme notes by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
This concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s In Concert on Wednesday 12 March at 7.30pm. It will be available for 30 days after broadcast via BBC Sounds.