Venice ‘Dishevelled’ Flies with Ravel!

There was no receding ego after the concert conducted by the ‘Great Dishevelled’ in the Teatro Malibran on the weekend. He knew it had been a great concert.

The Teatro Malibran seems, from where I was sitting, to have better acoustics than La Fenice. It has the same type of foyer floor as my apartment but the accoutrements lack the refinement of La Fenice. The orchestra plays on the stage in front of a huge yawning pit so the first row of the stalls seems almost halfway down the body of the theatre. It obviously lacks the modern machinery to convert the pit space for other use. It was built in 1667 and has been renovated a couple of times. But it feels a little shabby compared to other theatres.

The concert began with Ravel’s Shéhérazade. The first piece is a sort of internet travel site Asia ‘wish list’ for about 1903 and nothing more. Of course, it’s an opportunity for Ravel to get his teeth into some exotic orchestration and ‘Dishevelled’ to really make hay with the music. Did he go!! All those gorgeous shifting Ravel sounds were grist to his mill.

The soprano Malin Hartelius really went to town with the French. I asked the other people in my box about the colour of her dress. It was a beautful sort of deep acquamarine; “bluette” was the only word the others could come up with.

The three poems Ravel used for this work were written by Léon Leclère who, like Ravel, was passionately fond of the music of Debussy. So it is strange that Leclère used the Wagnerian pen name of Tristan Klingsor. However, the exotic sounds, which ‘Dishevelled’ and Hartelius produced, perfectly described the poet Klingsor with his ‘Apache’ friends in 1903 writing all the Asian visions he could dream up to take him away from a mundane existence. (in 1903 Paris!!!)

Things really get a little heated but with great subtlety in the second song. In fact there’s hardly any movement in the vocal line. It’s all words and orchestration. I just loved Hartlius singing her French and ‘Dishevelled’ working hard to equal it with impressionist waves of sound. Just listen to this …
”
Mais moi, je suis éveillée encore
Et j’écoute au dehors
Une chanson de flûte où s’épanche
Tour à tour la tristesse ou la joie.
Un air tour à tour langoureux ou frivole,
Que mon amoureux chéri joue.
Et quand je m’approche de la croisée
Il me semble que chaque note s’envole
De la flûte vers ma joue
Comme un mystérieux baiser.
”
And some of Ravel’s orchestrations express this subtle”mystérieux baiser”.

The third poem has been compared with Mann’s ‘Death In Venice’. For example, the last verse …

”
Mais non, tu passes
Et de mon seuil je te vois t’éloigner
Me faisant un dernier geste avec grâce
Et la hanche légèrement ployée
Par ta démarche féminine et lasse …
”

‘Nuff said! But, in context and only in context, it represents a stranger in an exotic land unable to make contact with people around him. Again, Klingsor, Ravel, Hartelius, ‘Dishevelled’ all combined to produce a marvellous performance. I LOVED Ravel’s setting of these songs!!!

‘Dishevelled’ was here to do another Mahler Symphony, the Fourth. It may not be such a great undertaking as the Ninth but, it seemed to me that he put even more work into this symphony that I had heard in the later work last week. The Ninth lasts about one and a half hours whilst the Fourth lasts about an hour.

The remarkable thing about ‘Dishevelled’s’ conducting of this work was that the orchestra never ‘coasted’ through a single phrase. Something was always going on. Even that first melody was eased into existence with eloquent rubatos and varying dynamics. All those wonderful woodwind voicings were exposed to best effect with perfect balance. Orchestration was almost transparent as the balance changed effectively for harp, those wierd violin sounds, and other entries. Throughout the first three movements there was never a feeling of any sort of relaxation in the music. It was always squirming, heaving, tripping, halting, dancing in that very unsettled Mahlerian manner. And those portamentos!!!!!

The vocal sections of the fourth movement gave us some sighing almost relaxed moments – the first time we actually had an opportunaity to breathe – then off the music went again with that same feeling before’coming down’ for the next vocal section. I can’t say I care much for the poetry of the vocal part but Mahn Hartelius, dressed in a very sombre dark dress, sang this wonderful setting perfectly. Maybe she felt that saints killing lamb and ox whilst deer or hare run up to be killed and fish jump joyfully into nets just wasn’t her thing?

Interestingly, if Bernstein and Barbirolli cease their heavenly repast and give me the chance to see them conduct this concert, judging from this performance,I may just prefer our great ‘Dishevelled’!!

Michèle Losier – Shéhérazade, I. Asie (Ravel) Plays through to II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kpjjq4-jd4&feature=PlayList&p=69A88962F0D0EECA&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=84
Janet Baker, John Barbirolli: Scheherezade I (Asie)/Ravel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t-u_hHmmqQ&feature=related
Janet Baker/John Barbirolli: Shéhérezade II. La flûte enchantée. (Ravel)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7duoyl925Q0&feature=related
Janet Baker/John Barbirolli: Schéhérezade III. L’indifferent
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eptdjpp_ZBw

Keith of Ninewells