Intelligent and adventurous programming has been
a feature of the rise and rise of the National Orchestra of Montpellier.
This CD is part of a series of new orchestral recordings which
include rare works by well-known names, and the chance to hear
some stunning new repertoire by those of which many will not have
heard.
Philippe Hersant was
a student of Jolivet in the Paris Conservatoire, and has been
winning prizes and forging a successful career ever since. His
Concerto for cello and orchestra No.2 was inspired by reading
a screenplay that Federico Fellini planned but never realised:
‘Il viaggio di G. Mastorna’, which follows the story of a cellist
to the realm of the dead. The piece, while not intentionally programmatic,
is theatrical – almost cinematographic in effect. The opening
orchestral surges are like the tolling of a great doom-laden bell,
over which the cello sighs mournfully. This is a recurring motive
of course, but the score is filled with an incredible amount of
skilfully orchestrated and inventive music, which really does
take the listener on a journey filled with craggy landscapes,
forbidding caves, or escapes through turbulent white-water rapids.
The piece is quite a white-knuckle ride at times, and I could
quite imagine it appearing as a highly effective soundtrack. It
is a genuine cello concerto however, not film music, and Cyrille
Tricoire’s excellent playing is more than a match for the large
orchestral forces ranged behind him. Hersant says, “In this concerto,
the cello seems like the hero in an opera without words”, which
sums up the dramatic content of this impressive work well.
Heathcliff is
an orchestral suite derived from Philippe Hersant’s ballet entitled
‘Wuthering Heights.’ The ‘opera without words’ idea is reiterated
in Hersant’s own programme notes, and there is a list of symbolic
motifs or references which, like Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’,
connect to characters and situations in the story. This suite
gives us around one third of the entire ballet, and is divided
into six movements. As you might expect, the music is passionate
and highly charged, and Hersant’s writing must have been a gift
to choreographer Kader Belarbi. Often oppressive and relentless,
Hersant emphasises the circular nature of the novel and Heathcliff’s
doomed character, through which tragedy and destruction are recurrent
and inevitable. There are of course a few cultural clashes, the
northern moors sounding sometimes a little more like the Camargue
at times. Ultimately, Heathcliff and Catherine are re-united in
the spirit world, at first expressed by, or wrung from warmly
passionate strings and a ghostly, almost off-stage piano. Tolling
tubular bells and piano are accompanied by bagpipes in the final
minutes, the passage to the afterworld tainted by animal calls
from a high clarinet – the ‘threat’ motive, suggesting that nirvana
is unlikely to be any real comfort after all.
The recordings on this CD are generally good, although Heathcliff
has occasional question marks around the balance between some
instruments. As live recordings and performances go these are
very good indeed, having that special atmosphere and energy which
is what one looks for in such productions. Philippe Hersant’s
music is at once approachable and challenging – not in the sense
of being highly intellectually demanding, but in the way it can
tap into the emotions and set the brain fizzing with imagery and
associations. I must say I have enjoyed this disc very much indeed.
It’s ‘proper music’: the equivalent of Peter Cook’s comment on
paintings, ‘where the eyes follow you around the room …’
Dominy Clements
Cyrille Tricoire
(cello)
