SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL CONCERT REVIEW
 

Boulez Conducts Ravel, Dalbavie and Bartók: Michelle De Young, mezzo-soprano, Falk Struckmann, bass-baritone, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Center / Pierre Boulez. Chicago 9.1.2010 (JLZ)

Ravel :Le tombeau de Couperin

Prélude

Forlane

Menuet

Rigaudon

Marc-André Dalbavie: Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in one movement (2006)

Béla Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle


In the first of a series of concerts that commemorate Pierre Boulez' 85^th birthday, the Chicago Symphony returned the French conductor to the podium in a fascinating program, which set the tone perfectly. Dynamic as ever, Boulez gave a brisk and convincing reading of the familiar suite that Maurice Ravel orchestrated from his original piano work Le tombeau de Couperin. Boulez gave a precise reading in which the structure of each section was almost palpable.

He opened the Prélude with a lively tempo, and principal oboist Eugene Izotov responded with a masterful performance of the solo lines. The Forlane was equally effective, in which the playful character of the piece emerged, but never became self-indulgent. With the first and second violins seated across the stage from each other, the string sound was nicely textured, and the sonorities in the woodwinds emerged easily from center of the stage. The dissonant sonorities Ravel used in this piece worked admirably because of the fine intonation and clean resolutions provided by every single player under Boulez’ guidance. In the same way the Menuet was memorable for its clear structure, and Boulez was particularly good in bringing out the string lines in the middle section of the movement. Izotov made the solo oboe lines in the Rigaudon into another stylish performance, and Boulez responded to it by giving the oboist a deserved solo bow.

The second piece in the program was the recent Flute Concerto by French composer Marc-André Dalbavie (b. 1961), who has contributed a major work to the instrument’s repertoire with this fine single-movement piece. The performance involved the CSO’s principal flutist Matthieu Dufour, whose solo appearance coincided with his decision not to leave for Los Angeles, but to retain his position in Chicago. Even though this matter had been well covered in the press, it was impressive to see the audience acknowledging Dufour with sustained applause when he entered to perform the Concerto.

Dalbavie’s concert received its premiere with the Chicago Symphony in this series of concerts, and the performance was extremely convincing. The Concerto involves some colorful and innovative sonorities, which emerged clearly through the sensitive ensemble provided by the CSO. The brass timbres served at times as a foil for the flute, and the unison pitches anchored in trumpet were nicely focused. Some of Dalbavie’s writing calls to mind the style of the late Polish composer Lutoslawski; elsewhere the sound masses resemble some of Iannis Xenakis’s late works. But even with those resemblances, the Concerto stands on its own merits as a strong work, and Matthieu Dufour gave the piece a virtuosic performance.

The true core of the program however was a concert performance of Béla Bartók’s one-act opera Bluebeard’s Castle, with Judith, Bluebeard’s most recent bride, sung by mezzo-soprano Michelle De Young, and the infamous Bluebeard by bass-baritone Falk Struckmann. With surcaps displayed over the stage in lieu of a libretto printed in the program, the presentation required the audience to keep its eye on the stage, and this helped highlight the expressive performances by the soloists. Both gave impassioned readings of their respective characters, with De Young demonstrating all the subtle changes in Judith’s outlook as as she worms Bluebeard’ secrets out him, with a powerful vocal command of this demanding role.

This impressive work - with its libretto by Béla Balázs - is fairly well known, but not staged regularly and indeed, with its highly evocative scoring the choosing to perform the work in concert may actually be preferable: it affords an opportunity to hear the work even more clearly perhaps than when the orchestra is in the pit. In this venue Boulez allowed the whole power of the score full rein and if the orchestral sonorities obscured the vocal lines at times, the performance was always rooted in the spirit of the Bartók’s score, in which the accompaniment is a critical participant in the opera. With the chromatic and, at times, richly romantic style given to Judith, De Young created a rich and convincingly obsessional character. Likewise, Struckmann gave a powerful reading to the role of the impassive yet vulnerable Bluebeard in the contrasting repetitive, pentatonic music. The singers responded to one another magnificently.

Yet it was the orchestra that stood out because of the scores carefully voiced textures and colors. The sound in the scene evoking Bluebeard’s torture chamber was appropriately menacing, and the martial music of the armory passage was nicely precise, with the fanfares in the trumpets fitting seamlessly into the larger fabric of the scene. Something could be said about the distinctive music associated with each of the doors, but the rich and full sonorities representing the whole of Bluebeard’s kingdom and the tormented relationships between the characters, were all marvelously persuasive with the expressionist aspects of the score integrated perfectly with its symbolist elements.

The performances in the entire concert demonstrated the reason - if any were needed - for celebrating Pierre Boulez' milestone: at eighty-five, he remains a hugely powerful force in the musical world. Hearty congratulations are due to him for this first concert in what promises to be a memorable series.

James L Zychowicz