SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Dutilleux and Messiaen: Joanna MacGregor (piano), Cynthia Millar (ondes martenot), Valery Gergiev (conductor), London Symphony Orchestra, Barbican Hall, London 20.5.2010 (GDn)

Henri Dutilleux: Métaboles

Olivier Messiaen: Turangalîla Symphony


Dutilleux and Messiaen are often mentioned in the same breath, but hearing Métaboles in the same programme as the Turangalîla Symphony suggests more differences than similarities. It makes Dutilleux sound remarkably concise, but also demonstrates his taste for tight musical construction, where melodic and linear processes cohere his work in a Debussy-like unity. Considering the contemporaneity of the two composers, the comparison also shows how much quicker Messiaen digested the influence of Debussy and Stravinsky; by 1965 Dutilleux was clearly a master of his art, but Messiaen was destined to remain the great innovator of their generation.

The pairing made for an excellent concert programme. The interval was shifted a long way forward (I for one would forgive them for breaking up the Turangalîla), but otherwise it is a great pairing that shows off the strengths of both works. It also shows of the strengths of the LSO and their chief conductor. Gergiev can turn his had to most musical tasks and pull off miracles, but I was especially impressed by his reading of the Dutilleux. The work is essentially a concerto for orchestra in five interconnected movements. It has a lyrical form, where melodic ideas interconnect into long stream-of-consciousness threads and climaxes are prepared minutes in advance with gradual, although usually indirect build-ups. All of which works in Gergiev’s favour, especially his ability to create musical intensity through finely-wrought orchestral textures and sheer power from the podium. In lesser hands, much of this could risk unintentional comedy (I’m thinking particularly of the extended percussion solos) but with Gergiev it all matters and it all contributes to an intense and above all coherent musical experience.

The concert was something of a return to form for the LSO, whose concert of Stravinsky symphonies last week left much to be desired. This is an orchestra who play at their best when rising to musical challenges, as the Turangalîla Symphony amply demonstrated. Rarely have the innovative woodwind and string textures in this work sounded as clear or as logical as here. Again, Gergiev’s ability to bring out the detail in large scale orchestration while always keeping the focus on the bigger picture paid dividends. I’ve heard this piece a few times, but I’d never realised just how radical the string writing is, nor how much it depends on the virtuosity of individuals in the woodwind section.

Joanna MacGregor is brave indeed to take on the piano part. She doesn’t quite have the security over the notes of Aimard, nor the power to compete with the orchestra like Donohoe, but she’s close enough on both counts. And she brings a sense of poetry to the quieter passages that is an essential ingredient to any performance that is going to justify the work’s exceeding length. Gergiev seemed short on patience in some of these quieter passages, but MacGregor’s insistence ensured they were given the space to breath.

Cynthia Millar gave an assured, and just as importantly, audible performance on the ondes. It struck me that the ondes martenot is an instrument prone to poor acoustics, which may be the reason why I have never heard it properly in a London concert hall. I’ve heard the work from the cheap seats of the Festival Hall, were the ondiste (I think it was Millar) was completely swamped by the orchestra, and a few years later from the cheap seats at the top of the Albert Hall, were Tristan Murail was frankly wasting his time. But up close in the much smaller Barbican hall it comes through as a real solo instrument, with all sorts of details I had not heard before.

Gergiev’s reading of the Turangalîla emphasised the martial and the grandiose over the poetic or (perish the thought) the erotic. Some great fortissimos from the brass, who really know how to turn it up to 11 while retaining complete control of the tone. There were a few co-ordination problems between the soloists and the orchestra, but they were never a major issue.

Turangalîla is an epic test of stamina for orchestras, and I can’t in all honesty say that the LSO passed with flying colours. There was a palpable dip in intensity and accuracy in the last 15 minutes or so. That’s understandable, but it’s a shame, because up until then their performance had been superlative.

Gavin Dixon