22 Nov 2018
Ravel’s Magical Glimpses into the World of Children
This is the fifth CD in a series devoted to Ravel’s orchestral works.
Recently in Reviews
ETO Autumn 2020 Season Announcement: Lyric Solitude
English Touring Opera are delighted to announce a season of lyric monodramas to tour nationally from October to December. The season features music for solo singer and piano by Argento, Britten, Tippett and Shostakovich with a bold and inventive approach to making opera during social distancing.
Love, always: Chanticleer, Live from London … via San Francisco
This tenth of ten Live from London concerts was in fact a recorded live performance from California. It was no less enjoyable for that, and it was also uplifting to learn that this wasn’t in fact the ‘last’ LfL event that we will be able to enjoy, courtesy of VOCES8 and their fellow vocal ensembles (more below …).
Dreams and delusions from Ian Bostridge and Imogen Cooper at Wigmore Hall
Ever since Wigmore Hall announced their superb series of autumn concerts, all streamed live and available free of charge, I’d been looking forward to this song recital by Ian Bostridge and Imogen Cooper.
Henry Purcell, Royal Welcome Songs for King Charles II Vol. III: The Sixteen/Harry Christophers
The Sixteen continues its exploration of Henry Purcell’s Welcome Songs for Charles II. As with Robert King’s pioneering Purcell series begun over thirty years ago for Hyperion, Harry Christophers is recording two Welcome Songs per disc.
Treasures of the English Renaissance: Stile Antico, Live from London
Although Stile Antico’s programme article for their Live from London recital introduced their selection from the many treasures of the English Renaissance in the context of the theological debates and upheavals of the Tudor and Elizabethan years, their performance was more evocative of private chamber music than of public liturgy.
Anima Rara: Ermonela Jaho
In February this year, Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho made a highly lauded debut recital at Wigmore Hall - a concert which both celebrated Opera Rara’s 50th anniversary and honoured the career of the Italian soprano Rosina Storchio (1872-1945), the star of verismo who created the title roles in Leoncavallo’s La bohème and Zazà, Mascagni’s Lodoletta and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.
A wonderful Wigmore Hall debut by Elizabeth Llewellyn
Evidently, face masks don’t stifle appreciative “Bravo!”s. And, reducing audience numbers doesn’t lower the volume of such acclamations. For, the audience at Wigmore Hall gave soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn and pianist Simon Lepper a greatly deserved warm reception and hearty response following this lunchtime recital of late-Romantic song.
Requiem pour les temps futurs: An AI requiem for a post-modern society
Collapsology. Or, perhaps we should use the French word ‘Collapsologie’ because this is a transdisciplinary idea pretty much advocated by a series of French theorists - and apparently, mostly French theorists. It in essence focuses on the imminent collapse of modern society and all its layers - a series of escalating crises on a global scale: environmental, economic, geopolitical, governmental; the list is extensive.
The Sixteen: Music for Reflection, live from Kings Place
For this week’s Live from London vocal recital we moved from the home of VOCES8, St Anne and St Agnes in the City of London, to Kings Place, where The Sixteen - who have been associate artists at the venue for some time - presented a programme of music and words bound together by the theme of ‘reflection’.
Iestyn Davies and Elizabeth Kenny explore Dowland's directness and darkness at Hatfield House
'Such is your divine Disposation that both you excellently understand, and royally entertaine the Exercise of Musicke.’
Ádám Fischer’s 1991 MahlerFest Kassel ‘Resurrection’ issued for the first time
Amongst an avalanche of new Mahler recordings appearing at the moment (Das Lied von der Erde seems to be the most favoured, with three) this 1991 Mahler Second from the 2nd Kassel MahlerFest is one of the more interesting releases.
Paradise Lost: Tête-à-Tête 2020
‘And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven … that old serpent … Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’
Max Lorenz: Tristan und Isolde, Hamburg 1949
If there is one myth, it seems believed by some people today, that probably needs shattering it is that post-war recordings or performances of Wagner operas were always of exceptional quality. This 1949 Hamburg Tristan und Isolde is one of those recordings - though quite who is to blame for its many problems takes quite some unearthing.
Joyce DiDonato: Met Stars Live in Concert
There was never any doubt that the fifth of the twelve Met Stars Live in Concert broadcasts was going to be a palpably intense and vivid event, as well as a musically stunning and theatrically enervating experience.
‘Where All Roses Go’: Apollo5, Live from London
‘Love’ was the theme for this Live from London performance by Apollo5. Given the complexity and diversity of that human emotion, and Apollo5’s reputation for versatility and diverse repertoire, ranging from Renaissance choral music to jazz, from contemporary classical works to popular song, it was no surprise that their programme spanned 500 years and several musical styles.
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields 're-connect'
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields have titled their autumn series of eight concerts - which are taking place at 5pm and 7.30pm on two Saturdays each month at their home venue in Trafalgar Square, and being filmed for streaming the following Thursday - ‘re:connect’.
Lucy Crowe and Allan Clayton join Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO at St Luke's
The London Symphony Orchestra opened their Autumn 2020 season with a homage to Oliver Knussen, who died at the age of 66 in July 2018. The programme traced a national musical lineage through the twentieth century, from Britten to Knussen, on to Mark-Anthony Turnage, and entwining the LSO and Rattle too.
Choral Dances: VOCES8, Live from London
With the Live from London digital vocal festival entering the second half of the series, the festival’s host, VOCES8, returned to their home at St Annes and St Agnes in the City of London to present a sequence of ‘Choral Dances’ - vocal music inspired by dance, embracing diverse genres from the Renaissance madrigal to swing jazz.
Royal Opera House Gala Concert
Just a few unison string wriggles from the opening of Mozart’s overture to Le nozze di Figaro are enough to make any opera-lover perch on the edge of their seat, in excited anticipation of the drama in music to come, so there could be no other curtain-raiser for this Gala Concert at the Royal Opera House, the latest instalment from ‘their House’ to ‘our houses’.
Fading: The Gesualdo Six at Live from London
"Before the ending of the day, creator of all things, we pray that, with your accustomed mercy, you may watch over us."
OPERA TODAY ARCHIVES »
Reviews
I loved vol. 4, whose main work was Ravel’s first opera, L’heure espagnole. Conductor Denève has, in the meantime, has become an ever-more-prominent figure on the world scene: during the 2019-20 season he will become music director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, after some years as Chief Conductor of the Stuttgart orchestra heard here, as Music Director of the Brussels Philharmonic, and as Principal Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Denève has an interest in exploring new and forgotten repertoire: he recorded operas by Dukas and Prokofieff, as well as numerous works by Roussel.
The longer of the two works on this CD is the second of Ravel’s two operas (both of which are in a single act lasting less than an hour). Its title, impossible to translate, means something like “The Child and the Magical Things that Start to Happen to Him.” The opera consists of a series of very short scenes, in which a young boy, unnamed, refuses to do his schoolwork, taunts animals, breaks household objects, rips illustrated characters out of the wallpaper and his storybook, gets chastised by Mommy, then (I am interpreting a bit from this point on) falls asleep and dreams of the various objects, animals, and illustrated characters that he has mistreated in his waking life. They sing and dance and accuse, and he begins to understand. Finally, he binds (or dreams that he binds) the wounds of the squirrel that he has injured and calls out to his Mommy. Animals of the fields, concerned, take up his powerful cry, and the child, apparently now back from dreams, turns toward his mother and stretches out his arms.
The verses, written by the popular fiction-writer Colette, are inventive and full of subtle humor, mystery, and touches of violence—as well as much imitation of animal noises plus some pidgin English and Chinese. Ravel’s music is enchanting beyond description: a kaleidoscopic survey of musical styles, from sacred-choral to cheeky foxtrot and Piaf-like cabaret waltz (several years before Piaf began her career). L’enfant et les sortilèges is hard to stage, both for dramaturgical reasons and for musical ones—especially in a large hall, in which the frequent quick vocal patter and much of the orchestral tracery can get lost. But it is a delight to listen to on CD.
There have been numerous much-admired recordings: I join other critics in recommending the earliest one (1947, conducted by Ernest Bour) and the modern versions conducted by, most notably, Maazel, Previn, Jordan, and Rattle. (Ansermet’s recording, though somewhat uneven, also has splendid assets.) To these can now be added the fine rendering by Denève and the Stuttgart Orchestra, recorded in 2015. The vocal soloists are all native French-speakers, which helps enormously, especially when the text has to be spit out quickly (e.g., by the tenor who plays “The Little Old Man”: this character is the embodiment of the rules of arithmetic that the boy has refused to learn). They all sing with firm tone and with little or no wobble. The best-known of the singers, Annick Massis, has performed leading operatic roles (e.g., Lucia and Violetta) in major houses. In my aforementioned review of Denève’s vol. 4, I admired Paul Gay’s performance of the role of Don Iñigo Gomez.
The two participating choruses handle the French text beautifully. The innocent quality of the Karlsruhe Youth Chorus adds immeasurably to the final minutes of the work. The orchestral playing ravishes the ear.
Throughout the opera, the recorded quality is balanced and true, inviting you to listen attentively and rewarding you for doing so. The music flows with a natural lilt and lift. I wouldn’t want a single detail to be different, though some things are of course done differently on other recordings and are no less convincing there. (Late update: yet another first-rate recording of the opera has just been released, conducted by Mikko Franck: see the review here.)
The five “Mother Goose” pieces that complete the CD were recorded in the same hall (the Beethoven-Saal of Stuttgart’s Liederhalle) during a 2013 concert rather than under studio conditions. The sonics here, too, are remarkably detailed. The audience members are as quiet as church mice and, I suspect, deep in concentration—that’s how engaging the music-making is. They applaud vociferously at the end. A few quick wind passages are not perfectly rendered, but the advantages of a live performance here outweigh the small disadvantages, revealing how fine the SWR Orchestra is “in real time,” at least when led by the man who was their Chief Conductor for seven years (2005-12).
On the outside of the box, the title of this orchestral work is. astonishingly, mistranslated into German as Meine Mutter, die Gans , i.e., “My Mother, the Goose”! Fortunately, the English translation of the informative booklet essay is well handled, except that, in the cast list for the opera, it leaves Bergère untranslated. The word does not, here, mean a shepherdess (as some might assume) but a small upholstered armchair or loveseat. (As I said, furniture sings in this opera—long before a certain Disney movie.)
The booklet includes no libretto for the opera. An imaginatively updated singing translation in English is here.
How lucky the folks in St. Louis are going to be to have a conductor with such a fine sense of atmosphere, pacing, and color!
Ralph P. Locke
The above review is a lightly revised version of one that first appeared in American Record Guide and appears here by kind permission.
Ralph P. Locke is emeritus professor of musicology at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music. Six of his articles have won the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for excellence in writing about music. His most recent two books are Musical Exoticism: Images and Reflections and Music and the Exotic from the Renaissance to Mozart (both Cambridge University Press). Both are now available in paperback, and the second is also available as an e-book.