SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Saint–Saëns, Fauré and Ravel: Viviane Hagner (violin), Steven Isserlis (cello), Jean–Efflam Bavouzet (piano), Wigmore Hall, London, 12.11.2010 (BBr)

 

Saint–Saëns: Cello Sonata No.1 in C minor, op.32 (1872)

Original finale for the Cello Sonata No.1 (1872)

Ravel: Violin Sonata in G (1923/1927)

Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré (1922)

Fauré: Berceuse, op.16 (1878/1879)

Saint–Saëns: Berceuse, op.38 (1871)

Fauré: Piano Trio in D minor, op.120 (1922/1923)


A very nicely proportioned concert of music by teacher and pupil: Saint–Saëns taught Fauré and Fauré taught Ravel. So here we had three generations of French music and what a fascinating journey it was!

Because of the immense popularity of the Carnival of the Animals and the Third Symphony, the majority of Saint–Saëns’s large output is unknown to the public. Things are changing, thanks to recordings, but it seems to me that we seldom get the chance to hear his chamber works in concert, so I am grateful to Steven Isserlis for giving us the First Cello Sonata, a very strong work, well laid out for the instruments, with good material, and a classical sensibility when it comes to form. This is fine stuff indeed, and Isserlis played it with a passion and abandon which suited it to the ground. As an extra he gave us the original finale - the first performance of this movement, he told us, since 1872! The reason that Saint–Saëns replaced the movement was because his mother didn’t like the original! There must be two reasons for this. The movement isn’t as exciting, nor as strong, as its replacement and it seems to be too complex and cerebral for inclusion in the kind of work Saint–Saëns was writing. It stands well alone and hopefully we’ll get to hear it again. Isserlis is the perfect advocate for this music.

Viviane Hagner was as fine an advocate for Ravel’s Violin Sonata. The first movement, with its seemingly disparate parts for fiddle and piano, was very well done, dispassionate and straight laced, with a disturbing undercurrent. For the famous blues, Hagner started quietly, almost nonchalantly, and she built the music until, at the climax, it became a wild and fantastic dance, dark and menacing. The finale, with its almost insane headlong rush was all virtuosity and capped a superb performance.

After the interval we had three Berceuses – I wonder what the collective noun for a clutch of Lullabies is? Britten chose the word “Charm” and he might be right, for the three examples offered here were certainly charming, Ravel’s in honour of his master being especially touching. Fauré’s was the only one which was a real berceuse and here we heard it played by cello – it is better known as a violin piece - and it proved a nice foil for the two fiddle lullabies.

To end we heard Fauré’s only Piano Trio, a product of his final years and one where he seems to have found a new simplicity of language, neo–classical in feel, but with grand gestures in the thematic material, which was seized on with alacrity by the string players. This was a broad, romantic, heart–warming performance which thoroughly suited the music.

Hagner and Isserlis were partnered, throughout, by the excellent Jean–Efflam Bavouzet, and it was good to hear him in chamber music after his success with the Debussy Fantasie, given last week at the Barbican with the BBC Symphony, for he is supremely gifted in both the concert hall and the recital room. This was a most worthwhile evening in London’s best hall for chamber music. What more can one ask for?

Bob Briggs