Audience member Richard Lane on Ravel, Falla and Respighi

Sketches of Spain…and Italy

Richard Lane is a keen amateur musician and concert goer, who will be sharing his year of The Rest Is Noise through blogs and podcasts.

Another Saturday night, no snow this time, and another journey into 20^th century music and ‘The Rest is Noise’ festival in the company of the LPO—and what a treat. A very different sound experience to Richard Strauss a fortnight ago. This concert focused on music from the first two decades of the last century, with a distinctively Mediterranean feel, Spain and Italy to be precise. The two pieces I knew slightly—Ravel’s Pavane and his colourful Rhapsodie Espagnol—would bring the concert to its climax. Also, some new sounds in the shape of works by Respighi and de Falla.

But before Enrique Mazzola had lifted his baton, I was lucky enough to spend a few minutes with Sue Bohling, the LPO’s cor anglais player. This was great fun, as Sue gave me a great insight into her perspective of the musical style of the evening’s programme, and took me into her life as a cor anglais player. I have always liked the instrument, dating back to my youth orchestra days, and can recall fine cor anglais solos in Berlioz’s ‘Roman Carnival’ overture, and in Rossini’s ‘William Tell’; though I find the cor rather mournful. Sue agreed, though also told me how the instrument can also be used to great comic effect – and how most cor anglais players spend a lot of their orchestral time doubling up on the oboe parts, especially in hefty works such as Mahler symphonies and the like. Anyway, do listen out for the podcast of Sue’s interview and also the thoughts of my friend Ronwen and myself on the concert.

Back to the concert – Respighi’s ‘Fountains of Rome’ depicted four fountains of the eternal city. This vivid orchestral poem was beautifully romantic, gentle and colourful, especially when the organ joined the orchestra in the Trevi Fountain section. Next, exquisite piano playing from Javier Perianes in Manuel de Falla’s ‘Nights in the garden of Spain’; this was a journey to Andalucía, with the distinctive sounds and rhythms of flamenco, especially in the movement ‘Sierra de Cordoba’. Javier is going to be a star, I am sure, with his technical brilliance and silky touch, and what a glorious encore, a kind of Chopin nocturne with an Andalucían twist.  I found out afterwards that it was Falla’s Serenata Andalucia.

After the interval, it was Respighi again, but in a very different mood to the Fountains of Rome. ‘Il Tramonto’ (the sunset) is set to a tragic Shelley poem where a young couple experience the ecstasy of their love at sunset, only for the man to die and for the woman to express her grief and agony at his loss. Our tragic heroine, soprano Maria Luigia Borsi, beautifully depicted the emotional depth of the story, exquisite in turquoise dress and clenching her black stole, only releasing it at the final moment of the piece. It reminded me a little of Richard Strauss and his Four Last Songs, composed nearly 40 years later; Ronwen heard echoes of Mahler.

Continuing the melancholy theme, Ravel’s ‘Pavane pour une infante défunte’ was described by the composer as ‘an evocation of a pavane that a little princess might, in former times, have danced at the Spanish court’. I loved the horn solo and gentle pizzicato strings at the start of the piece, and the use of the harps at the end. And finally ravel’s ‘Rhapsodie Espagnol’, with its ominous four-note progression- F, E, D, C sharp – running through the piece – yet brilliantly, Ravel’s masterful orchestration sets exhilarating harmony, rhythms, and stunning dynamic contrast to deliver an ultimately optimistic and colourful Spanish landscape and a foot-tapping climax. Sue Bohling’s cor anglais solos were superb, and for a moment I wanted to be a harpist; it must be such a thrill to do a glissando on the harp, and there were also fabulous glissandi in the brass and woodwind. Ravel, though french, was clearly influenced by Spanish culture, his mother having lived in Madrid when she was a child, and Ravel himself born and brought up in the Basque region, just over the border from Spain on the Atlantic coast.

Ronwen and I left the concert feeling exhilarated, after a truly wonderful evening of musical colour and atmospheric contrasts. A truly great concert, another enthralling journey into 20^th century music. And if that isn’t enough, I’ll be back on Saturday 16 February for, among other things, a piece of music called ‘The Rite of Spring’. How exciting is that?

Find out more about The Rest Is Noise on the LPO’s festival website

Richard Lane is a keen amateur musician and concert goer, who will be sharing his year of The Rest Is Noise through blogs and podcasts.