United Kingdom Ravel: Tenebrae, London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor). Barbican Corridor, London. 16.4.2024. (CSa)
Ravel – Daphnis and Chloé
It had been a tiring twelve hours for Sir Antonio Pappano, the London Symphony Orchestra’s Chief Conductor elect, when he stepped onto the podium of the Barbican Corridor for the primary ‘Half Six Repair’ of the season. After a agency downbeat from the maestro and roughly twenty shimmering bars from the center part of Daphnis and Chloé, he turned in direction of the viewers to introduce them to the intricacies of Ravel’s full ballet or, because the composer described it, his symphonie chorégraphique, a pastoral romance set in historic Greece, it recounts the parable of two foundlings introduced up by shepherds who fall in love, are kidnapped and later reunited. Ravel’s musical setting of this story is among the of probably the most wondrous and delicately colored orchestral works in all of twentieth-century music.
‘Written in 2012…whoops…1912’ stated Pappano earlier than instantly correcting himself, including ‘It’s been a protracted day’. Certainly, it had. That morning, he had delivered a hard-hitting speech to mark the opening of the LSO’s new season, through which he had criticised shameful funding cuts throughout the humanities. ‘It’s not the LSO’s accountability to coach youngsters’, he complained, ‘It’s the Authorities’s job’. That stated, Pappano is a pure born instructor. Earlier than embarking on the complete efficiency, he offered a useful and entertaining define of the ballet plot which even the youngest concertgoers (and there have been quantity current) may observe. In an extra revolutionary break from standard live performance presentation, and one meant to deliver performers and concertgoers collectively, a rolling synopsis and close-up photos of the musicians as they performed have been beamed up on massive screens positioned on both facet of the platform.
Pappano’s expertise for conveying the underlying message of the music and connecting with the viewers couldn’t after all have been so profitable with no spectacular efficiency from the massive meeting of musicians and a wordless refrain. The total forces of the virtuoso orchestra (some 103 gamers), backed by the choir Tenebrae, gave a beautiful, and at instances, magical account. Sweeping strings, gossamer harps, beautiful woodwind, softly burnished or generally ferocious brass and pinpoint exact percussion, which included an aeoliphone (wind machine), completely captured Ravel’s sensuous musical dreamscape and mixed to entice and delight. Pappano’s looking baton drew a wealthy sonority from every part and his fastidiously calibrated path ensured that timings and tonal steadiness have been good. From the primal, swelling Introduction and Spiritual Dance to the eerie Sluggish and Mysterious Dance of the Nymphs on the finish of Half 1, the gamers and singers conjured an environment of mysterious serenity. A fevered Struggle Dance in Half 2 raised the heart beat whereas the evocations of dawn and warbling birdsong originally of Half 3 have been merely ravishing. A hypnotic Pantomime and blissful flute solo (the excellent Gareth Davies) preceded a riotous bacchanalia which introduced this excellent musical occasion to a detailed and proved a brief however highly effective repair to finish the day and begin the night.
Chris Sallon
