Tag Archives: Augusta Holmès

Arcana at the Proms – Prom 43: Paul Lewis, CBSO / Kazuki Yamada – Ravel, Mozart, Holmès & Mussorgsky / Wood

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Ravel Ma mère l’Oye – suite (1910-11)
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat, K595 (1790-91)
Holmès La Nuit et de l’Amour (1888)
Mussorgsky arr. Wood Pictures at an Exhibition (1874, orch. 1915)

Paul Lewis (piano, above), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Kazuki Yamada

Royal Albert Hall, London
Thursday 22 August 2024

reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photos (c) Sisi Burn

A colourful Prom from the CBSO this year, reaching a deafening climax with Proms founder Sir Henry Wood’s arrangement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition. More of that anon, but the orchestra, under principal conductor Kazuki Yamada, began with music by Ravel – whose orchestration of the Mussorgsky we tend to hear.

Mother Goose was cool to the touch but given a winning performance, Ravel’s colours spread across the orchestra as the music came to life. The CBSO strings were elegant and refined, leaving the starry moments to the woodwind, who excelled – particularly the gruff contrabassoon in Conversation of Beauty and the Beast, winningly played by Margaret Cookhorn. The hues of the closing The fairy garden were ideal, too – though Yamada’s decision to bring the music to a near standstill before the final, wondrous tune won’t have been to all tastes, no matter how skilfully it was achieved.

Elegance was the watchword for Paul Lewis’s Mozart, too – a thoughtful and graceful account of the composer’s last piano concerto, published in his final year but thought to have begun three years prior. This is Mozart in relatively subdued form, but still cracking a smile in the attractive first movement. Soloist and orchestra took a little while to align within the Royal Albert Hall acoustic, but once they did the first movement dialogue, complete with Mozart’s own cadenza, was fluent and balletic. The slow movement lullaby was a treat, Lewis with stylish phrasing of the melodies, while the finale enjoyed its lightfooted dance, a theme so simple and yet so memorable; classic Mozart.

Following the interval we heard the brief but romantic La Nuit et de l’Amour by Augusta Holmès, a pupil of César Franck whose music was appearing at the Proms for the first time. It was a charming miniature with a memorable tune, whose presence shone through. It acted as an upbeat to Sir Henry Wood’s arrangement of Mussorgsky’s tour through the gallery, a version predating the celebrated Ravel by seven years.

Unlike the Frenchman, Wood goes for broke on several occasions during Pictures At An Exhibition. His decision to include only the first Promenade, where Mussorgsky describes his observer walking around the exhibition, means the pictures are a little squashed together, but in this performance the dramatic impact was heightened. Gnomus was frankly terrifying, while The Old Castle was headed by a sensitive and touching euphonium solo; Becky Smith projecting beautifully from the gallery.

Wood’s version is brassy on occasion, and the CBSO players excelled – as did the wind and percussion, whose unpredictable interventions had the audience jumping on several occasions! They were a feature of Bydlo, the old carriage rumbling into action with all its bells rattling, the lower strings and brass in deep toil. Nothing quite prepared the throng for the final Great Gate of Kiev, however – not even the sinister outlines of the preceding Baba Yaga. The gate itself came slowly into view, the toll of the nine bells of the Liverpool Philharmonic bells up in the gallery both solemn and unexpectedly chilling. Soon all notions of reserve were brushed aside, however, Wood’s orchestration demanding the nine bells at full volume – delivered in a brilliant peal from the gallery by Graham Johns. However – from the arena at least – they did rather swamp the combined forces of the orchestra and organ, who were barely audible at times.

Excesses like these no doubt helped Emerson Lake and Palmer in their decision to arrange Pictures for rock group in 1971 – and certainly had a positive impact on the Proms audience, who were thrilled by the drama and the sheer volume. So too was Yamada, who had already been dancing on the podium, but as the Gate reached its tremendous conclusion he pivoted to urge the audience into applause, long before the final chord had rung out. How refreshing to see a conductor living in the moment, reading the occasion and the audience, and crowning a memorable Prom with shattering, exhilarating noise.

The playlist below collects the music from this concert, including the only available recording of the arrangement of Pictures At An Exhibition by Sir Henry Wood:

Published post no.2,283 – Saturday 24 August 2024

In concert – Paul Lewis, CBSO / Kazuki Yamada: Ravel, Mozart, Holmès & Mussorgsky / Wood

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Paul Lewis (piano, above), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Kazuki Yamada

Ravel Ma mère l’Oye – suite (1910-11)
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat, K595 (1790-91)
Holmès La Nuit et de l’Amour (1888)
Mussorgsky arr. Wood Pictures at an Exhibition (1874, orch. 1915)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 21 August 2024

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

Although the CBSO has not put on its own Proms season for many years, a concert featuring the programme for its annual Proms appearance has been a regular fixture and this evening’s event proved to be much more than merely a ‘dry run’ for tomorrow’s Royal Albert Hall date.

Despite the timing, this was indeed the suite as orchestrated by Ravel from his Mother Goose piano duets before being expanded into a ballet. It took a while to get going – Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty feeling impassive and Little Tom Thumb enervated, yet Laideronette had the requisite playfulness. Conversations of Beauty and the Beast was ideally poised between whimsy and pathos, before The Enchanted Garden concluded this sequence with an inward rapture made more so thanks to its exquisite contribution from leader EugeneTzikindelean.

Paul Lewis must have played Mozart’s 27th Piano Concerto on innumerable occasions (and several times with the CBSO) but his perspective constantly varies. The opening movement had a spaciousness resulting in an unusually moderate Allegro, albeit never at the expense of a subtly incremental intensity unerringly sustained through to a cadenza of limpid eloquence. Even finer was the Larghetto – dependent, as with much of Mozart’s late music, on what the performer brings to it; here yielding a serenity informed by not a little fatalism. After which the finale provided an ideal complement in its buoyancy and unforced humour, leading into a cadenza (how fortunate Mozart’s own have survived) of pensive understatement, then a coda launched with a guileless interplay of soloist and string that set the seal on this performance.

Opening the second half was Augusta Holmès’s La Nuit et l’Amour – actually, an interlude from Ludus pro Patria, her ‘Ode-Symphonie’ which, even if it might not sustain the present piece’s enfolding passion, should certainly be worth at least a one-off hearing in its entirety.

In Henry Wood’s orchestration, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition proved a highlight of last season. Wood retains only the first appearance of the Promenade but is not unfaithful to the original’s essence. Hence the shock-horror of Gnomus, sombre aura of The Old Castle with its baleful euphonium, playful insistence of The Tuileries or fatalistic tread of Bydlo with its evocative percussion. The whimsical Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks contrasts with the grim realism of Samuel Goldberg and Schmuÿle or the frantic bustle of The Market at Limoges.

Respighi surely took note of this glowering Catacombs with its plangent recollection of the promenade refrain hardly less effective than in Ravel, and while Baba Yaga is unnecessarily curtailed here, its sudden dispersal more than prepares for the crescendo of offstage bells that launches The Great Gate[s] of Kiev. This set the tone for a realization which, if its opulence borders on overkill, could not prevent the CBSO from projecting Wood’s cinematic sonics to the maximum. Those present once again erupted during that echoing resonance at its close.

Quite a way, then, to end an impressive performance and memorable concert. Kazuki Yamada and the orchestra will be doing it all over again tomorrow evening at their Prom, at which this orchestration of the Mussorgsky will be heard in the environs as envisaged by its orchestrator.

The playlist below collects the music from this concert, including the only available recording of the arrangement of Pictures At An Exhibition by Sir Henry Wood:

For details on the 2024-25 season A Season of Joy, head to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra website. Click on the names to read more about pianist Paul Lewis and chief conductor Kazuki Yamada

Published post no.2,279 – Friday 23 August 2024

In concert – Thomas Trotter, CBSO / Pierre Bleuse: Saint-Saëns ‘Organ’ Symphony; Ravel, Poulenc & Holmès

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Thomas Trotter (organ, above), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Pierre Bleuse

Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914-17, orch. 1919)
Poulenc Organ Concerto in G minor FP93 (1934-8)
Holmès La Nuit et l’Amour (1888)
Saint-Saëns Symphony no.3 in C minor Op.78 ‘Organ’ (1885-6)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 20 September 2023 (2.15pm)

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

It hardly seems 40 years since Thomas Trotter took on the post of Birmingham City Organist in succession to the venerable George Thalben-Ball, and it was good to see his local orchestra marking the occasion with a programme which featured two staples from the organ repertoire.

Some 85 years on and it might be hard to imagine just how radical (or, better still, subversive) Poulenc’s Organ Concerto was through its juxtaposing elements both serious and populist in a continuous sequence that comes together precisely because of this stylistic incongruity. Not that Trotter betrayed any such doubts in what proved a tautly cumulative reading; aspects of the Baroque and Classical colliding with a sombre if never wantonly earnest Romanticism in which strings melded seamlessly with the soloist while timpani underpinned climactic points. Pierre Bleuse ensured a steady gathering of tension over the lengthy central span of slow(ish) music, with the final stages making the most of that music-hall element as makes the fateful ensuing recessional then baleful closing cadence more decisive in its stark emotional impact.

Organ transcription of Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin is not unknown, but this afternoon’s performance was of the composer’s familiar orchestral version. Bleuse (below) conveyed the reticent elation of the Prélude, and while his expressive emphases made the Forlane overly studied in its knowingness, the wistful elegance of the Minuet sounded as disarming as was Yurie Aramaki’s oboe playing. Nor was any lack of poise in the central sections of the Rigaudon, even if Bleuse’s slightly stolid tempo in those either side sacrificed some of the music’s elan.

Composer, artist and feminist Augusta Holmès left a substantial output whose ambition may outstrip its attainment but includes such gems as La Nuit et l’Amour. Originally an interlude in her symphonic ode Ludus pro patria, it had established itself as an autonomous item well before becoming a staple of late-night music programmes – its canny amalgam of sensuous harmonies and heady lyricism recalling such contemporaries as Massenet and Godard, albeit with her engagingly personal twist which communicated itself readily in this performance.

Saint-Saëns was guarded with his assessment of Holmès, but his remark on her ‘flamboyant orchestration’ feels no less applicable to the Organ Symphony such as constitutes his greatest orchestral achievement and of which the City of Birmingham Symphony has given numerous memorable outings. While not among these, this account still left little to be desired – Bleuse launching the first part with keen expectancy before steering a purposeful if slightly dogged course through the ensuing Allegro. Seated up high at the organ console (rather than adjacent to the orchestra as with the Poulenc), Trotter made the most of the Adagio’s luminous timbral registrations which complemented the similarly burnished orchestration, while there was no lack of vigour or vivacity in the ‘scherzo’ section that bursts in at the start of the second part.

It is easy to make the ‘finale’ overbearing in its grandiloquence, but Trotter resisted any such temptation – he and Bleuse conveying the impetus and excitement of this music as it headed through passages of chorale and fugue toward a peroration as satisfying as it was irresistible.

You can read all about the 2023/24 season and book tickets at the CBSO website. Click on the artist names for more information on organist Thomas Trotter and conductor Pierre Bleuse

Online concert – Steven Isserlis & Connie Shih mark the centenary of Saint-Saëns @ Wigmore Hall

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steven-isserlis

Saint-Saëns Cello Sonata no.1 in C minor Op.32 (1872)
Liszt Romance oubliée S132 (1880)
Fauré Romance Op.69 (1894)
Saint-Saëns Romance in F major Op.36 (1874)
Bizet arr. Hollman Carmen fantaisie (not known)
Willaume La noce bretonne Op.14 (pub. 1924)
Holmès arr. Isserlis Noël d’Irlande (1897)
Hahn 2 improvisations sur des airs irlandais (1894 rev. 1911)
Saint-Saëns Cello Sonata no.2 in F major Op.123 (1905)

Steven Isserlis (cello, above), Connie Shih (piano, below)

Wigmore Hall, London
Thursday 16 December 2021

Written by Ben Hogwood

This well-devised program to mark the centenary of the death of Saint-Saëns was put together by cellist Steven Isserlis and his regular partner, pianist Connie Shih. They presented the composer’s two cello sonatas, the first of which was recorded by Isserlis back in 1992, in an intriguing historical context.

There is no room for shrinking violets in the first movement of the Cello Sonata no.1 in C minor Op.32, a relatively early work, and both performers threw themselves headlong into the music. Saint-Saëns was a virtuoso pianist, and on occasion his writing for the instrument is as demanding if not more so than the instrument it is ‘accompanying’. Here however the two were on equal terms, with plenty of cut and thrust in a dramatic first movement. The C minor casting and stormy start draw parallels with Beethoven, and these were built upon in the players’ compelling dialogue. The improvisatory slow movement was ideally poised, with an air of mystery in its central section where the cello was in its lowest register, complemented by twinkling figures from the piano. The Allegro moderato third movement returned us to powerful, passionate music, Isserlis’ double stopping passages immaculately delivered and Shih finding the necessary definition and phrasing in a superbly played piano part.

A full 32 years elapsed between the first sonata and its sequel, the Cello Sonata no.2 in F major Op.123. By this time the 70 year-old composer’s style had developed considerably. It is a substantial piece, running over 35 minutes, and is perhaps less-performed on that basis, not to mention the demands made on the performers. Isserlis and Shih showed what a fine work it is, however, in a performance that was gripping from the off, full of passion but also finding the more elusive statements in the quieter music, where Saint-Saëns could be found writing subtle but far-reaching sleights of harmony.

A joyous opening paragraph surged forward with considerable energy, powering an impressive and flowing first movement, Shih harnessing the power of the piano but continuing to hold a sensitive balance. She led off a capricious scherzo, whose variations were brilliantly characterized, from a limpid third variation (marked Tranquille) to a rippling Molto allegro that followed.

The heart of the piece, however, lies in the substantial Romance, a dreamy slow movement with a beautiful melody and a profound middle section turning towards the minor key. Both played with poise and affection, finding the centre of music the audience could fully lose themselves in. The last movement, which the composer promised ‘will wake anyone who’s slept through the rest of the piece’, was terrific, working from its deceptively innocuous opening phrase to throw off the shackles and end in celebratory mood. Isserlis was typically generous with his expression, with Shih deserving credit for her technical command and shapely melodic phrasing. The octaves towards the end were especially well-handled.

While the two sonatas were the main works of the concert, the complementary pieces were no less involving, providing an ideal foil. Firstly we heard from Saint-Saëns’ close friend Liszt, one of his few works for cello and piano. The Romance oubliée began with a recitative, with beautiful tone in the held notes from the cello, setting the (intense) mood. Then another great friend (and pupil), Fauré – whose Romance uses the whole range of the cello, starting in the mysterious depths and ending in the rarefied upper register. Saint-Saens’ own warm-hearted Romance in F major Op.36 was affectionately recounted, before the showstopping Carmen fantasie from Saint-Saëns’ friend and regular recital partner, Joseph Hollman. This was a showstopper, with quickfire dances and a pizzicato Habanera, stylishly done by Isserlis.

Shorter pieces followed from Gabriel Willaume, Reynaldo Hahn and Augusta Holmès, each with fascinating connections to the composer. Willaume’s La noce bretonne (The Breton wedding) was rather moving, its distant drone growing in feeling and power before passing by and disappearing again. Hahn’s 2 improvisations were songlike and affecting in their simplicity, a soulful Willow Tree especially, before an arrangement by Isserlis of Holmès song Noël d’Irlande, its pentatonic language easy to absorb.

This was a very fine concert, with playing of an exceptionally high standard by both artists, but crucially with the involvement that told us how Saint-Saëns, in particular, could combine virtuosity with deep feeling, contrary to some opinion. It is hard to imagine how his centenary could have been better observed – and it ended with a perfectly weighted account of The Swan, one of his most famous shorter pieces – taken as it is from Carnival of the Animals. Isserlis needed only to introduce it with a wave of the hand.

You can watch this concert on the Wigmore Hall website for the next 28 days – and you can hear most of the music played by Isserlis and Shih on the Spotify playlist below, with some of the recordings drawn from their recent album Music from Proust’s Salons. That disc can be heard (and purchased) from the BIS website