Tag Archives: Maurice Ravel

In concert – Ruby Hughes, Natalie Clein & Julius Drake: Schubert and Other Folksongs @ Queen Elizabeth Hall

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Ruby Hughes (soprano), Natalie Clein (cello), Julius Drake (piano)

Schubert arr. Jones Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (The Shepherd on the Rock) D965 (1828)
Kodály Sonatina for cello & piano (1922)
Tavener Akhmatova Songs: Dante, Boris Pasternak, Dvustishie (Couplet) (1993)
Brahms 2 Songs Op.91 (1884)
Trad arr. Britten I wonder as I wander (1940-41), At the mid hour of night (Molly, my dear), How sweet the answer (The Wren) (both 1957)
Deborah Pritchard Storm Song (2017)
Janáček Pohádka (Fairy tale) (1910, revised 1923)
Ravel Kaddisch from 2 Mélodies hébraïques (1914)
Bloch From Jewish Life (1924)
Schubert Auf dem Strom (On the river) D943 (1828)
(Encore) Berlioz La Captive

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 27 June 2025

by John Earls. Photo credits (c) Philip Sharp (above), John Earls (below)

Two of the most affecting sections of Ruby Hughes’ excellent 2024 album with the Manchester Collective End of My Days are three of John Tavener’s Akhmatova Songs (Dante, Boris Pasternak and  Couplet) and Maurice Ravel’s Kaddish (from 2 Mélodies hébraïques).

These also featured to dramatic effect in this fascinating concert programme of Schubert and Other Folksongs spanning two centuries, where Hughes was joined by Natalie Clein (cello) and Julius Drake (piano).

In this performance the Tavener song miniatures were performed for voice and cello and were at turns powerful, beautiful and urgent across their nine-minute duration. The prolonged silence from the audience afterwards was noticeable. Ravel’s lament-like Kaddish, this time for voice and (sparse) piano, was similarly respectfully performed and observed.

There were non-vocal pieces for cello and piano where Clein and Drake displayed what a well matched duo they are. Zoltán Kodály’s Sonatina was luminescent, Leoš Janáček’s Pohádka absorbing (not least the cello bowing and pizzicato) and Ernest Bloch’s From Jewish Life was both lovely and mournful.

But this was a concert where Ruby Hughes’ amazing voice was to the fore but often in an understated, but no less impactful way. The captivating trio of Benjamin Britten folksong arrangements with their minimal piano trills were a case in point.

The trio performances were also impressive in their delivery and range. Brahms’ 2 Songs (Op.91) were both gorgeous, while Deborah Pritchard’s Storm Song (from 2017, the most recently written piece) was powerfully unnerving between its haunting start and end (the composer was in the audience to take a well deserved bow).

The concert was bookended by two songs written by Franz Schubert shortly before his death in 1828 at the age of just 31. As David Kettle remarks in his excellent programme notes, to call them simply songs is to do them a disservice. Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (The Shepherd on the rock), arranged by Peter Jones for voice, cello (replacing the clarinet) and piano, traversed a journey of yearning and joy that was both delicate and impassioned. The closing Auf dem Strom (On the river) saw Hughes capturing the drama convincingly throughout.

An encore of Berlioz’s La Captive concluded this concert that combined fascinating and thoughtful programming with performances of beautifully judged expression.

John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union and posts at @johnearls.bsky.social on Bluesky and @john_earls on X. You can subscribe (free) to his Hanging Out a Window Substack column here: https://johnearls.substack.com/

Published post no.2,579 – Sunday 29 June 2025

In concert – Emmanuel Despax @ Bechstein Hall, London

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Emmanuel Despax (piano)

Ravel Miroirs (1905)
Despax Sounds of Music – Concert Paraphrase on The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein (unknown)
Fauré arr. Despax Après un rêve Op.7/1 (1877)
Debussy Clair de lune (1905)
Ravel Gaspard de la nuit (1908)

Bechstein Hall, London, 7 March 2025

by John Earls. Photo credit (c) John Earls

The most recognised piece of music by French composer Maurice Ravel is his 1928 large orchestral work Boléro, famously used in the film 10 and by Torvill and Dean when ice dancing their way to a 1984 Winter Olympics gold medal.

But there is also a magnificent repertoire of piano music including for solo piano and this provided the main feature of this recital by Emmanuel Despax, marking the 150th anniversary of Ravel’s birth.

The first set opened with Miroirs (Mirrors), a suite of five short movements Ravel dedicated to his fellow members of the French avant-garde artist group Les Apaches.

Noctuelles (Night Moths) had twinkling moments of calm surfacing through its dark undertones, contemplative birdsong is evoked in Oiseaux tristes (Sad Birds), Une barque sur l’océan (A Boat on the Ocean) captured both the flow and ripple of the waves, Alborada del gracioso (The Jester’s Aubade) had a jittery, Spanish aspect, and the bells of La vallée des cloches (The Valley of Bells) are not peals so much as melancholic, dark flashes.

The set ended with Despax’s Sounds of Music, a ‘Concert Paraphrase’ on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music. I enjoyed its dark humour and nods to other classical piano composers – “If you hear something you recognise it’s not plagiarism, it’s on purpose” Despax forewarned us.

The second set opened with Despax’s arrangement of Faure’s Après un rêve (After a Dream) which was serious and majestic followed by Debussy’s Clair de lune (Moonlight) which whilst thoughtful and considered was also beautifully delicate and expressive.

But the evening was Ravel’s and it concluded with his epic three part masterpiece Gaspard de la nuit (Gaspard of the Night) derived from the prose poems by Aloysius Bertrand. Described by Despax as a “symphonic work for solo piano” it is notoriously difficult to play.

Ondine’s hypnotic trills are shaken by a short powerful blast towards the end and Despax displayed his virtuosity throughout. Le Gibet presents bells of a different kind to those featured in the earlier set, more disturbing and ominous as the repeating tolls maintained throughout evoke the lone hanged man of its inspiration. The way Despax leaned into his keyboard in rapt concentration reminded me of jazz pianist Brad Mehldau at his most intense. The final piece, Scarbo, depicts a mischievous goblin and was spritely before its dramatic long pause towards the end and a forceful energetic finish. It was as captivating to watch as it was to listen to.

What was clear from this performance is the attachment and affinity that Emmanuel Despax has for the music of Maurice Ravel. This was confirmed by an encore of Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess) which provided a moving and tender conclusion to the evening.

John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union. He posts on Bluesky and tweets / updates his ‘X’ content at @john_earls

Published post no.2,468 – Sunday 9 March 2025

On Record – Claire Booth & Andrew Matthews-Owen: Paris 1913: L’offrande lyrique (Nimbus)

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Caplet En regardant ces belles fleurs
Milhaud L’innocence Op. 10/3
Hahn À Chloris
Ravel arr. Stravinsky Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé M64
Auric Trois Interludes: Le pouf.
Ropartz La Route
Durey L’Offrande lyrique Op. 4
Saint-Saëns Petit main Op.146/9
Fauré Il m’est cher, Amour, le bandeau, Op. 106/7
Chaminade Je voudrais être une fleur
Debussy Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé L127
Satie ed. Dearden Trois Poèmes d’Amour
Lili Boulanger Clairières dans le Ciel: Vous m’avez regardé avec votre âme
Grovlez Guitares et mandolines

Claire Booth (soprano), Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

Nimbus RTF Classical NI6455 [66’23”] French texts included
Producer & Engineer Raphaël Mouterde

Recorded 11/12 March, 4-6 September 2023 at Wyastone Concert Hall, Monmouth

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Another enterprising song recital from Claire Booth and Andrew Matthews-Owen, this one focussing on songs that were either conceived, composed or premiered in Paris during 1913 and resulting in an absorbing collection best heard as a diverse while unpredictable totality.

What’s the music like?

Interleaving standalone songs and song-cycles, this recital opens with André Caplet’s take on Charles d’Orléans, its limpid modality highly appealing, then continues with an early song by Darius Milhaud as already demonstrates his distinctive and amusing approach to word-setting, while that by Reynaldo Hahn typifies the teasing charm familiar from his vocal music overall. Maurice Ravel’s triptych to texts by Mallarmé is performed in a version by Stravinsky with its accompanying nonet reduced to piano which, in preserving and maybe even accentuating the music’s questing introspection, represents no mean fete of transcription. Still relatively little known, this certainly deserves to be heard as at least an occasional alternative to the original.

Remembered best as a prolific writer of film scores, Georges Auric had shown a precocious talent for song as is evident in his sensuous setting of René Chalupt. A composer who often wrote on a symphonic scale, Guy Ropartz is heard in a setting of his own verse that amounts to a ‘scena’ in its wide expressive ambit. Interest understandably centres on the eponymous cycle by Louis Durey, a member of Les Six whose increasingly far-left conviction tended to marginalize his creativity yet, as these lucid and empathetic settings of Rabindranath Tagore (as translated by André Gide) confirm, had emerged as a protean talent by his mid-twenties. Hopefully these artists will be encouraged to investigate other of his songs from this period. By contrast, a late song by Camille Saint-Saëns exudes a touching poignancy, while that by Gabriel Fauré typifies the elusiveness of those in his last decade. As is evident here, Cécile Chaminade was a songwriter of style and elegance, then the Mallarmé triptych by Debussy (its first two texts identical to those of Ravel) finds this composer probing the inscrutability of these poems while drawing back from any more explicit intervention. The inscrutability conveyed by Erik Satie’s aphoristic settings (edited by Nathan James Dearden) of his own texts is altogether more playful – after which, the recital continues with a pensive offering by Lili Boulanger, with Gabriel Grovlez’s sultrily evocative setting of Saint-Saëns to finish.

Does it all work?

Yes, given the fascination of this collection taken as a whole and, moreover, the quality of these renditions. Booth is not a singer willing to take the easy option in her interpretations, and so it proves here with singing as fastidious as it is refined, while Matthews-Owen duly instils often deceptively spare accompaniments with understated insight. They contribute a succinctly informative note, but the booklet includes only the French texts with the English translations available at https://rtfn.eu/paris1913/: might it have best the other way round?

Is it recommended?

Very much so. There is much to fascinate even those who consider themselves afficionados of the ‘chanson’, and those who are unfamiliar with much of this repertoire could not have a better means of acquainting themselves with certain of its treasures – hidden or otherwise.

Listen & Buy

For purchase options, you can visit the Ulysees Arts website. For information on the performers, click on the names to read more about Claire Booth and Andrew Matthews-Owen

Published post no.2,466 – Friday 7 March 2025

In concert – Hyeyoon Park, CBSO / Alexander Shelley: Gershwin, Florence Price, Ravel & Stravinsky

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Hyeyoon Park (violin, above), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Alexander Shelley (below)

Gershwin An American in Paris (1928)
Price Violin Concerto no.2 in D minor (1952)
Price arr. Farrington Adoration (1951)
Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914-17, orch. 1919)
Stravinsky The Firebird – suite (1910, arr. 1919)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Thursday 20 February 2025 (2:15pm)

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

Although he holds major posts in Canada and Naples and has a longstanding association with the Royal Philharmonic, Alexander Shelley seems not previously to have conducted the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and this afternoon’s concert made one hope he will return soon.

An American in Paris was a tricky piece with which to open proceedings, but here succeeded well on its own terms. Somewhere between tone poem and symphonic rhapsody, Gershwin’s evocation of a compatriot (maybe himself?) not a little lost in the French capital was treated to a bracingly impulsive and most often perceptive reading. A slightly start-stop feel in those earlier stages ceased well before Jason Lewis’s eloquent though not unduly inflected take on its indelible trumpet melody, with the closing stages afforded a tangible sense of resolution.

Much interest has centred over this past decade on the music of Florence Price – the Chicago-based composer and pianist, much of whose output was thought lost prior to the rediscovery of a substantial cache of manuscripts in 2009. One of which was her Second Violin Concerto, among her last works and whose 15-minute single movement evinces a focus and continuity often lacking in her earlier symphonic pieces (not least a Piano Concerto which Birmingham heard a couple of seasons ago). Its rich-textured orchestration (but why four percussionists?) is an ideal backdrop for the soloist to elaborate its series of episodes commanding, ruminative then impetuous, and Hyeyoon Park made the most of her time in the spotlight for an account that presented this always enjoyable while ultimately unmemorable work to best advantage.

The concerto being short measure, Park continued with an ideal encore. Written for solo organ, Price’s Adoration was given in Iain Farrington’s arrangement that brought out its elegance and warmth, if also an unlikely resemblance to Albert Fitz’s ballad The Honeysuckle and the Bee.

After the interval, music by composers from whom Gershwin had sought composition lessons when in Paris. Orchestral forces duly scaled down, Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin was at its best in a deftly propelled Forlane, the alternation of verses with refrains never outstaying its welcome, then a Menuet whose winsome poise – and delectable oboe playing from Hyun Jung Song – emphasized the ominous tone of its central section. The Prélude was a little too skittish, while a capering Rigaudon was spoiled by an excessive ritenuto on its final phrase.

Interesting how the 1919 suite from Stravinsky’s The Firebird has regained a popularity it long enjoyed before renditions of the complete ballet became the norm. Drawing palpable mystery from its ‘Introduction’, Shelley (above) secured a dextrous response in Dance of the Firebird then an alluring response from the woodwind in Khovorod of the Princesses. Contrast again with the Infernal Dance of King Kashchei, even if its later stages lacked a measure of adrenalin, then the Berceuse had a soulful contribution by Nikolaj Henriques and fastidiously shaded strings. Hardly less involving was the crescendo into the Finale, started by Zoe Tweed’s poetic horn solo and culminating in a peroration with no lack of spectacle. It made an imposing end to this varied and cohesive concert, one that confirmed Shelley as a conductor with whom to reckon.

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 violinist Hyeyoon Park, and conductor Alexander Shelley, or for more on composer Florence Price

Published post no.2,453 – Saturday 22 February 2025

On this day…four contrasting premieres by Lyadov, Ravel, Korngold and Britten

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by Ben Hogwood

Here are four very contrasting first performances from 12 December across history for you to enjoy. In 1909, the first performance of Lyadov’s Kikimora in St Petersburg:

In 1920 the first performance of Ravel’s La Valse at a Lamoureux Concert in Paris…

…and on the same day the first performance of Korngold’s Die tote stadt, in Hamburg and Cologne. Here is Marietta’s Lied, sung by Renée Fleming:

…and finally, on the same day in 1932, Leon Goossens and the International String Quartet gave the first performance of the teenage Benjamin Britten’s Phantasy Quartet Op.2, in London:

Published post no.2,391 – Thursday 12 December 2024