RSNO: La Mer
Usher Hall - 08/03/24
Catriona Morison, mezzo-soprano | Thomas Søndergård, conductor
It was lovely to be back in the Usher Hall for the latest in the RSNO’s winter season, a concert of French music, some familiar, some less so.
Before all the cross-Channel ‘magique’, the orchestra was joined by large numbers of primary school children from the Big Noise Wester Hailes in two short pieces written especially for new string players by Joëlle Broad. Big Noise Wester Hailes is part of the extraordinary success of the Sistema system, which started in Venezuela in 1975 and is now a worldwide phenomenon, giving musical education to over 700,000 children. Scotland has six communities which are served by Big Noise Scotland, and Wester Hailes is Edinburgh’s partner. It has only been going for a year and a half, and so far only caters for string instruments, but woodwind, brass and percussion will be added soon. The joy on the faces of the young musicians was clear to see, and the decent Usher Hall audience gave a rapturous reception to Joëlle Broad’s ‘Saturn’ and ‘Mission Mars.’
Once the children had left, we heard a fascinating curiosity, ‘Trois Femmes de Légende,’ by Mel Bonis. On International Women’s Day, and with support from the ABO Trust’s Sirens Programme (a ten year initiative to promote music by historical women composers), this was the Scottish premiere of a work discovered by Mélanie Bonis’s great grand-daughter, and first heard in Cardiff in 2015. Bonis’s career mirrors that of many female composers, struggling to cope with societal attitudes and parental disapproval, but this tone poem, created from a series of piano pieces about famous women, demonstrates that she had a very individual voice, and one worth hearing.
The three famous women here were Ophelia (Hamlet), Salome and Cleopatra, and in their different sound worlds, their music proved to be most enjoyable. Couched in the prevailing Impressionist style of the early 20th century, each movement revealed a powerful chromatic sense. Ophelia reminded us of her passion for Hamlet, and her watery demise, while Salome clearly showed us the single-minded pursuit of her mother Herodias’s wish for the head of John the Baptist, although without the clear erotic overtones supplied by Richard Strauss in his opera. The final movement, Cleopatra’s Dream, plunged us into the sensual world of the Middle East, as the great seductress of antiquity lulled us with her charms. Thomas Søndergård clearly enjoyed the exoticism of this music and his flowing, almost balletic, style suited it perfectly. Bonis lived from 1858-1937, and her music deserves to be heard more.
The first half ended with Ernest Chausson’s extended piece for voice and orchestra, ‘Poème de l’Amour et de la Mer’, premiered in Paris in April 1893. Originally written for tenor or soprano, we heard the slightly lower version, ravishingly sung by the Scottish mezzo-soprano, Catriona Morison. It was clear that she was under the weather, although there was no suggestion of this in her voice, and there was no announcement, but the fact that she cancelled the performance the following night in Glasgow told its own story. We were indeed fortunate to hear her rendition, as she is now a superb artist. Still only in her 30s, I marvel at her poise on the platform and her glorious voice, as she led us through the, very French, trials and tribulations of a doomed love affair. Chausson set two poems by his friend, the Symbolist poet Maurice Bouchor, and we were overwhelmed by the scents of lilacs and roses and found ourselves drowning in an azure sea. French poetry and song at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries would be lost without the fragrance of flowers and the rippling of the waves! Thomas Søndergård allowed the RSNO to accompany Ms Morison’s singing with a delicacy of touch which was most subtle. If only we had been able to read the words, printed in the programme but unreadable in the Stygian gloom, we would have understood far more of Chausson’s and Bouchor’s concept and would surely have enjoyed more of the details of the performance.
After the interval, we heard Ravel’s orchestration of the third of his set of piano pieces, Miroirs. Une Barque sur L’Ocean was first heard in Paris in 1907, two years after Miroirs was premiered, and it was the perfect warm-up for La Mer which was to follow. A large orchestra, with two harps, glockenspiel and celeste to the fore, enticed us upon the restless sea, which despite its power and threatening nature, remained largely calm during this voyage. A shout out to our harpists, Pippa Tunnell and Sharon Griffiths, and Hebba Benyaghla on celeste.
Finally, we heard Claude Debussy’s masterpiece, La Mer, one of the seminal works of the early 20th century, in an incandescent performance which brought great cheers from the audience. Premiered in Paris in October 1905, the work is an evocation of the sea, rather than a depiction of an actual time or place, although the first movement hints at a time frame from dawn to midday, Erik Satie’s joke that he particularly enjoyed the bit at quarter to 11 notwithstanding! The fact that Debussy wrote some of the music in Eastbourne on the south English coast, and also in Burgundy, far from the sea, reminds us that the whole piece is a work of memory of days on or by the sea in Debussy’s youth. The succès de scandale of ‘Pelléas et Mélisande’ three years before had marked out Debussy as a sort of champion of new music, and La Mer was to firm up that reputation. To this day, his music attracts differing opinions, but there is no doubt that his musical style was hugely individual and era-defining. I love his music and it has been my privilege to sing many times in ‘Pelléas,’ as the blind old king, Arkel.
It is some time since I last heard La Mer, and this performance, superbly conducted by Mr Søndergård, was beautifully paced and perfectly balanced. Gorgeous solos by Henry Clay (cor anglais) and Christopher Hart (trumpet) stood out, as did the cello of Pei-Jee Ng, as we were swept along on the crest of a wave. I was reminded that the editor of the EMR, Hugh Kerr, is presently sailing in the Pacific Ocean on the QM2, which must be fabulous, but I was very content to be in the Usher Hall on Friday to hear Debussy’s masterpiece, as it conjured up visions and memories of the sea nearer to home.
