Ravel : Le Tombeau de Couperin
Barber : Violin Concerto (Valeriy Sokolov, violin)
Vaughan Williams : Symphony No. 5
Nicholas Carter
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
All of the pieces today were written under the shadow of war. Ravel's pastiche Baroque dance suite commemorates friends lost during the '14-'18 war. The Barber was written in 1939, and while Barber was in Switzerland, where he must have been aware of the situation in Europe, not to mention that his composition was interrupted when all Americans were strongly advised to leave Europe, while the Vaughan Williams was written between '38-'42. For all that, however, they are relatively optimistic pieces.
The Ravel was quite elegantly handled, with nice, transparent textures, but the Forlane, as usual, proved the stumbling block. There's hardly one performance in five that manages all the repeats without seeming to drag eventually, and this wasn't one of those. Aside from anything else, the orchestra was less than its usual pristine self, and in the light of the remainder of the concert, I think that they maybe allocated a little less rehearsal time to this than to the other, ostensibly trickier pieces - always a dangerous game with Ravel, who demands complete precision at all times, whether it's for the piano alone, or the full orchestra.
The Barber came as kind of a bit of a culture shock after Ravel, with its lushly romantic themes and rich, chromatic orchestration. Valeriy Sokolov has a suitably equivalent lush timbre, resonant and warm, though still sometimes drowned by the more thunderous corners of Barber's orchestra. It was a relatively sober reading, until the last movement with its madcap whirlwind of notes for the soloist - and Sokolov was smiling throughout! Certainly he played it with admirable clarity, giving a shape to the movement that can often be lost in the desperate need to get all the notes out.
Finally, Vaughan Williams's solemnly noble 5th Symphony, and this was a beautiful reading, full of broad, unrushed melodic lines, and sonorities redolent of church incense and stained-glass windows, hints of bells in the background, pathos and hope, quiet confidence and deep serenity, a highly satisfying conclusion to the concert.
[Next : 28th October]
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