SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Dutilleux, Ravel, Couperin and Stravinsky: Angela Hewitt (piano) BBC Symphony Orchestra/Lionel Bringuier, Barbican Hall, London, 23.1.2010 (J-PJ)

Dutilleux: Métaboles
Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin; Piano Concerto in G
Couperin: Le tic-toc-choc; Les baricades mistérieuses
Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite


The young French conductor Lionel Bringuier cut a dashing figure on the podium, bringing with him an energetic flair and sense of discovery.  The concert adopted the theme of musical dialogue across the centuries, with Dutilleux’s Ravel-tinged score followed by two classic works from the French master, one of which was punctuated with music from his great Baroque forebear, François Couperin.

The opening work, Dutilleux’s Métaboles, was written in 1959-64 when the composer was beginning to shake free of the influence of Ravel. Nevertheless, parts of the score recall Ravel’s neo-Classical impressionism, especially in the shimmering orchestration and its rhythmic drive. Bringuier seemed happy to bring these elements to the fore, although it took him and the BBC Symphony Orchestra some time to feel at ease. The opening Incantatoire sounded hesitant, while unintentional dissonances in the strings marred the Linéaire. The next three movements were much more exciting, particularly the final Flamboyant, which bristled with energy.

Looking back over their shoulders, the BBC SO next tackled Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin – but with a difference. Originally cast in six movements for solo piano, the work is better known in the orchestral version Ravel made in 1919, from which he omitted the second and sixth movements – a fugue and toccata respectively. Rather ingeniously, the BBC SO interspersed the orchestrated movements with the missing piano sections, finely played by Angela Hewitt. This provided the audience with a much fuller understanding of the work. But where the performance faltered was in the inclusion of two of Couperin’s Ordres. This was intended to highlight the musical antecedents from which Ravel drew inspiration, but instead it threw the listener off course and made Le Tombeau seem much more of a memorial to Couperin than it really is.

The orchestra and Hewitt were on safer ground with Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, playing it for what it is – a showy, jazzy piece of art deco brilliance. Hewitt invested all her technical know-how into the piece, although the central Adagio was expansively and feelingly played, and the final Presto was well-served by Bringuier’s sprited élan.

In contrast, Stravinsky’s Firebird suite, which rounded off the programme, was a bit of a disappointment. Not that there was anything wrong with the playing. It was a controlled, and occasionally subtle reading. But the work did not fit into the inter-generational overview of French music, and Stravinsky’s working of the full-length ballet into a suite leaves the music sounding truncated and – with its reduced orchestral forces – a little thin and undramatic.

John-Pierre Joyce