RSNO, 20/10/2018
Gabriela Ortiz : Hominum - Suite for Orchestra
Ravel : Piano Concerto in G major (Vanessa Benelli Mosell, piano)
Falla : The Three-Cornered Hat (Ana Schwedhelm, soprano)
Ravel : Boléro
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Carlos Miguel Prieto
It appears that the first piece on tonight's programme is a cut-down version of, presumably, a larger piece, of the same name, but subtitled a Concerto for Orchestra. I can't tell if this version now exists in tandem with the original, or has supplanted it, but like much new music, I need to hear it again to really get any kind of grip on it. My immediate impression, within a couple of minutes of the beginning, was of Bartok, with a hint of a Latin-American twist. Something about the orchestration reminded me of the Hungarian composer's 'night music', and that stayed with me for much of the piece. There was an aqueous quality to the sound which I rather liked, but I certainly wasn't able to associate what I heard with what I read in the programme notes (and I should probably have attended the pre-concert talk!), and cannot say it made an indelible impression upon me.
I can't honestly say that Vanessa Benelli Mosell made an indelible impression either. A solid technique, certainly, a clear tone, and crisply supported by the orchestra, but it was an honest, straightforward performance of the Ravel G major, and nothing much more. These days, I want more. She's pleasing to watch, but the Ravel concerto at least needs to mature somewhat. As an encore, she played Horowitz's arrangement of Bizet's "Danse bohémienne" from Carmen, a virtuoso showpiece that's a guaranteed crowd pleaser, but I heard George Li play this as an encore, here, in the same hall, back in April, and Mosell's performance wasn't a patch on Li's.
However, it was the second half of the concert that I had booked my ticket for, as I was keen to hear Carlos Miguel Prieto (whose conducting I had liked very much a couple of years ago, when he did the Verdi Requiem with this orchestra and its chorus) in the Falla. I hadn't realised, originally, that we were going to be getting the complete ballet score, complete with vocal soloist, and that was very welcome. There was one surprise; I've seen the ballet, aside from having a couple of recordings, but nowhere had I come across a passage of declamation, in addition to the two songs. Translations in the programme booklet would have been nice; all I could pick up, with my non-existent Spanish, was that it was something about the moon. It was evocatively delivered, as were the songs, by Ana Schwedhelm.
Falla often passes thematic material through different sections of the orchestra consecutively, so you're meant to perceive a whole through a patchwork of varying colours and textures. This dovetailing, as the material changes section, was occasionally a little rough, but on the whole this was an excellent performance, richly colourful and atmospheric, particularly the nocturnal music of the second part.
It's maybe my imagination, but it seems to me that concerts have been getting longer in the last couple of years. It used to be that you went in for a 19:30 start, and the concert would end, give or take five minutes, at 21:30. Lately, it's much nearer 22:00 before you're ready to leave the building. Tonight was a case in point. The concert could have ended, quite happily, with the Falla. We'd had around 40 minutes of music in the first half, with an opening piece and a concerto, and at about another 40 minutes, the Falla was a perfectly respectable substitute for a good-sized symphony, and with a suitably rousing finale, too. However, Prieto and the orchestra weren't quite done with us yet, and offered, as a closer, the eternally, hypnotically fascinating Boléro, in a perfectly graded crescendo of tension. At the end, Prieto gently chivvied Principal Percussionist Simon Lowdon to the front of the platform, to claim his due for the unremitting precision of his drumming; he had indeed earned every second of that applause.
[Next : 28th October]
Ravel : Piano Concerto in G major (Vanessa Benelli Mosell, piano)
Falla : The Three-Cornered Hat (Ana Schwedhelm, soprano)
Ravel : Boléro
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Carlos Miguel Prieto
It appears that the first piece on tonight's programme is a cut-down version of, presumably, a larger piece, of the same name, but subtitled a Concerto for Orchestra. I can't tell if this version now exists in tandem with the original, or has supplanted it, but like much new music, I need to hear it again to really get any kind of grip on it. My immediate impression, within a couple of minutes of the beginning, was of Bartok, with a hint of a Latin-American twist. Something about the orchestration reminded me of the Hungarian composer's 'night music', and that stayed with me for much of the piece. There was an aqueous quality to the sound which I rather liked, but I certainly wasn't able to associate what I heard with what I read in the programme notes (and I should probably have attended the pre-concert talk!), and cannot say it made an indelible impression upon me.
I can't honestly say that Vanessa Benelli Mosell made an indelible impression either. A solid technique, certainly, a clear tone, and crisply supported by the orchestra, but it was an honest, straightforward performance of the Ravel G major, and nothing much more. These days, I want more. She's pleasing to watch, but the Ravel concerto at least needs to mature somewhat. As an encore, she played Horowitz's arrangement of Bizet's "Danse bohémienne" from Carmen, a virtuoso showpiece that's a guaranteed crowd pleaser, but I heard George Li play this as an encore, here, in the same hall, back in April, and Mosell's performance wasn't a patch on Li's.
However, it was the second half of the concert that I had booked my ticket for, as I was keen to hear Carlos Miguel Prieto (whose conducting I had liked very much a couple of years ago, when he did the Verdi Requiem with this orchestra and its chorus) in the Falla. I hadn't realised, originally, that we were going to be getting the complete ballet score, complete with vocal soloist, and that was very welcome. There was one surprise; I've seen the ballet, aside from having a couple of recordings, but nowhere had I come across a passage of declamation, in addition to the two songs. Translations in the programme booklet would have been nice; all I could pick up, with my non-existent Spanish, was that it was something about the moon. It was evocatively delivered, as were the songs, by Ana Schwedhelm.
Falla often passes thematic material through different sections of the orchestra consecutively, so you're meant to perceive a whole through a patchwork of varying colours and textures. This dovetailing, as the material changes section, was occasionally a little rough, but on the whole this was an excellent performance, richly colourful and atmospheric, particularly the nocturnal music of the second part.
It's maybe my imagination, but it seems to me that concerts have been getting longer in the last couple of years. It used to be that you went in for a 19:30 start, and the concert would end, give or take five minutes, at 21:30. Lately, it's much nearer 22:00 before you're ready to leave the building. Tonight was a case in point. The concert could have ended, quite happily, with the Falla. We'd had around 40 minutes of music in the first half, with an opening piece and a concerto, and at about another 40 minutes, the Falla was a perfectly respectable substitute for a good-sized symphony, and with a suitably rousing finale, too. However, Prieto and the orchestra weren't quite done with us yet, and offered, as a closer, the eternally, hypnotically fascinating Boléro, in a perfectly graded crescendo of tension. At the end, Prieto gently chivvied Principal Percussionist Simon Lowdon to the front of the platform, to claim his due for the unremitting precision of his drumming; he had indeed earned every second of that applause.
[Next : 28th October]