Reveling in Ravel -- Cleveland Orchestra 2/04/10


The musical textures created by Maurice Ravel are so sensuous and sumptuous you feel as though you should be able to reach out and touch them. As brought to life by guest conductor Pierre Boulez and pianist Pierre Laurent-Aimard along with the Cleveland Orchestra on Thursday evening, the listener was absolutely surrounded by them. It was nirvana.

Of course, when a concert begins with an enthusiastic and prolonged ovation to greet the conductor as he walks on stage, you know it’s going to be special—and indeed, it was. Celebrating his 85th birthday next month, Mr. Boulez has safely left his enfant terrible stage behind him to become a much-beloved elder statesman. He is still vigorous and assured on the podium, conducting as always, without baton. The sounds he produces are breathtakingly lovely.

As in a sandwich, the two Ravel concertos formed the middle of the concert: the G major (for two hands) prior to intermission and the D major for Left Hand following. It’s almost impossible to comprehend how the same composer wrote both pieces, working on both of them during the same span of months, and yet they are vastly different from each other. Ravel’s fingerprints are most assuredly all over both of them, in spite of a few differences. The G major uses a smaller orchestra and is in three separate movements. The D major is in one long movement with a full orchestra behind it.

Mr. Aimard—for the previous two seasons the orchestra’s artist-in-residence—has a 35-year musical association with Mr. Boulez, so it’s hardly surprising that they are so in tune with each other. (By the way, these concerts were recorded for CD release by Deutsche Grammophon—watch for more information. This CD should be in everyone’s collection!)

After the sharp opening, there is a strong jazz element, and the very fast, high trumpet part was easily tossed off by principal Michael Sachs. The first movement abounds with a French insouciance, even when it moves to a gorgeous interlude on the harp (wonderfully played by Trina Struble) and terrific high horn melodies from Rich King. (Is there such a thing as falsetto in the horn's repertoire?)

The second movement—allegro assai—is an extended piano solo that is poignant, languid and heart-stoppingly gorgeous! It’s almost ruminative by nature, with a rather long passage for left hand alone, prompting one to wonder if Ravel was testing the notion to see if it would really work. Near the end Josh Smith joins in with his flute for a neat duet. The final presto is just that! It’s very fast, almost frantic, and very jazzy, ending with a sharp slap, just as it began.

The concerto for the left hand begins with the contra-bassoon (Jonathan Sherwin) rumbling around at the lowest end of the musical scale, and only after the music moves upward through the higher-pitched instruments, does the piano enter, again at the lowest end of the keyboard, moving upward in a graceful arpeggio-like climb. Despite using only one hand, the pianist uses all the keyboard, and all possible notes during the concerto. In addition, the music itself ranges from traditional classical to jazzy and syncopated. There’s even a nod to the famous snare drum sequence in Bolero, along with the use of a wide variety of other percussion instruments.

Having watched and listened to Mr. Aimard’s astonishing performance, this concerto has moved to the top of my ‘most difficult concertos to play’ list. The former champion, Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3, may be longer and even have more notes, but the degree of difficulty is vastly different, and the nod definitely goes to Ravel. (Listeners have been known to state “I could swear I heard three hands playing in there!”)

The all-French concert began with a rarely heard work by Olivier Messiaen: L'Ascension, which tells of the Ascension of Christ. A spiritual man, Messiaen uses the timbres of the orchestra to describe the individual ‘méditations’. The first, Majesty, is almost entirely brass; Serene is mostly winds with violins; Hallelujah uses the entire orchestra while Prayer employed muted strings in close harmony. It was wonderfully descriptive musical writing that ended rather suddenly, almost in mid-air.

Ibéria from Images by Claude Debussy brought the evening to a close. The three movements in this section of a larger work describe the short visit made by the composer: a cityscape, fragrances of the night, and the morning of a festival. The composer was very French, but this music is French with a strong Spanish accent. Or the other way around—they’re inextricably mixed. One could almost discern the lush, fragrant atmosphere in the evening gardens during the languid middle movement, accented by the soft tympani of Paul Yancich. During the festival scene, the violins were strummed like guitars. Neat.

Mr. Boulez returns for a second week of concerts, this time featuring music of Mahler, again for recording. Concerts will be Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. For information about upcoming concerts, visit the website: http://www.clevelandorchestra.com or call the ticket office at 216.231.1111.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz, who writes: My most recently published book is Ardenwycke Unveiled (e-book and trade paper). Cerridwen has another contemporary romance from me, But Not For Love, currently available only as an e-book, but perhaps will be in print next year. I hope to soon get around to completing some of the 30+ incomplete books in my computer!

By the way, Cerridwen has also accepted two of my short stories in their Scintillating Samples (complimentary reads) area: Song of the Swan and Unexpected Comfort. I love photography as well, as you can see here. Occasionally I teach writing workshops and sometimes do editing or ghostwriting on a free-lance basis. But over and above everything else, there's always been the writing. I can't imagine my life without it.