Ravel : Alborada del gracioso
Vaughan Williams : The Lark Ascending (Nicola Benedetti, violin)
Saint-Saëns : Introduction and Rondo capriccioso (Nicola Benedetti, violin)
Walton (arr. Palmer) : Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario (Cal MacAninch, narrator)
RSNO Chorus
RSNO Junior Chorus
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Peter Oundjian
An odd programme this, if intriguing; Franco-English, but with England looking towards France, and France looking towards Spain. After last week's truly remarkable performances, I was hoping for more of a similar calibre. Alas, it was not to be, on the whole, starting with a somewhat leaden Alborada del gracioso. It's a heavily scored piece, but that's the magic of Ravel and the orchestra, that he can use practically every instrument you can think of, and still sound light as air - with the cooperation of conductor and orchestra, of course, which he didn't get here. The notes were in the right place, there just wasn't any room to breathe in between.
Things looked up considerably for the Vaughan Williams. Oundjian had already proven he can handle Vaughan Williams with an excellent Tallis Fantasia last winter. Here too, the orchestra perfectly captured that golden haze of sound, allowing Nicola Benedetti to sing freely above it, tender and infinitely nostalgic. Although this is an English piece par excellence, it is redolent of the orchestral techniques Vaughan Williams acquired from Ravel, used to create such a clear impression of an idealised English countryside, and a last moment of peace in a world that was about to be forever changed by the First World War.
Saint-Saëns's composition for the brilliant young Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate is a completely different affair. Essentially, it's a piece of empty virtuosity - but a lot of fun, at least to listen to. I imagine it's a lot less fun for the soloist to learn, not that you would know that from hearing Benedetti play it. However, there was one thing I thought missing. It's not a reflection on her technique or her musicality, for both of which I have a great deal of respect, but this music is designed purely to show off, and it demands a certain attitude from the soloist, a sort of cock-of-the-walk insouciance, even insolence. 'Look at me, see what I can do, how brilliant I am' is what is being said with this music, and the soloist needs to assume that. Benedetti can do it, of that there's no doubt - but she's maybe a little modest about it.
The concert ended with something a little hard to define, an arrangement of the film score of Laurence Olivier's Henry V, with a narrator reciting some of the key moments of the Shakespeare text. Musically, this was well done, on the whole, with strong playing from the orchestra, and the choruses were mostly very good, although the men at the start of the last section sounded curiously weak. Alexander Nevsky it's not, but it's still a fine score and deserving of a hearing. What I was rather less happy about was the choice of actor. Cal MacAninch didn't have the voice for the part. His timbre is husky, even hoarse, despite amplification he was frequently covered by the orchestra, and when he raised his tone, he became almost incomprehensible. It was a struggle to follow him, and it's only because some of the speeches are so very famous that I was able to follow. The effort involved took me out of the moment all too often and, to my mind, spoiled the overall effect. Rather a shame, in the end.
[Next: 6th June]
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