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Royal Theatre
March 2, 2015
Programme Music is somewhat cryptically defined as "a type of 'art music' that attempts to musically render an extra-musical narrative." In other words, it is music that tells a story, as opposed to solving mathematical riddles. For example, Richard Strauss' "Till Eulenspiegel" is an example of program music, while most of Bach's music exemplifies the opposite. Whether intentional or not, program music was one of the themes of the March 2 concert by the Victoria Symphony.
Playing to an almost full house, the orchestra opened with Ana Sokolović's Ringelspiel (Merry-Go-Round). Guest conductor Andrew Grams forewarned the audience that the orchestra would be using their instruments in a somewhat unorthodox manner, including tapping and scratching. Being forewarned always helps!
Ringelspiel falls squarely into the category of programme music and is meant to evoke visual images in the eyes of the beholder. One such beholder watched the carousel begin to go round merrily with the usual cast of happy children riding on the customary menagerie of tropical animals that rock and pivot to the incongruous sound of a street organ. You can hear the humming and clanging of the carousel machinery as it turns the platform. A sudden accelerando in the music score informs us that said machinery is speeding up and possibly going out of control. The resulting centrifugal force jettisons the children from their animals. Without going into all the gory details, the beholder concluded from the ensuing rallentando that the children went to Heaven, where a more serene carousel experience awaited them.
In a 2013 interview, the Montreal-based composer painted a less cataclysmic picture: Ringelspiel contains five sections without interruptions: (i) Section with mechanical effects, (ii) Same, but more heavy-footed, (iii) Merry-go-round with ballerina, (iv) More mechanical effects, and (v) Broken merry-go-round. Well, she is of course entitled to her own interpretation, as was everyone in the audience. Judging by the enthusiastic applause, the piece did manage to bring out the child lurking somewhere deep inside each of us.
Speaking of programme music: During the pre-concert talk, the speaker offered a fitting analogy between the subdued colour palette of Impressionist painters and the airy harmonies employed by their composer counterparts. In fact, I have always associated Pissarro with Debussy and Gaugin with Ravel, the more so because of the rich atmosphere they manage to create with only a few brush strokes in sight and sound.
Maurice Ravel's Concerto in G Major for Piano and Orchestra was for many in the audience the highlight of the evening, mostly thanks to Jan Lisiecki's lyrical yet meticulous piano rendition. Rumour has it that this was his first public performance of the composition which demands a combination of uttermost technical skill and sensitivity. The influence of the emerging jazz styles of the 1920s comes through in the Third Movement, and sometimes one must be forgiven for thinking that the pianist had accidentally locked in to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."
But it is the adagio assai in the second movement that always leaves the audience breathless with a sense of profound nostalgia, and on this occasion it was particularly palpable. During the first half, the piano plays a slow solo in 6/8 time, after which the orchestra gradually blends in as if to offer solace and support. Think "arriving home after years in exile."
In his 6th, "Pastoral" Symphony, Beethoven pioneered the art of writing program music, although his palette was anything but subdued. Indeed, the five Movements carry the highly pictorial labels The Awakening of Joyful Impressions on Arrival in the Country; Scene by the Brook; Jolly Gathering of Country Folk; Thunderstorm; and Shepherd's Song. The composer spent his early years in Bonn, and the Symphony invites us to join him for a walk in the bucolic Eifel hills bordering on the city.
One of the trombone players advertised the obligatory raffle by outlining the prizes which included a Rhine-Danube cruise for two, and provoked laughter by suggesting that everyone refrain from buying the tickets. Whereupon the conductor let it be known that if a single person were to win the cruise for two, he would be available to fill the gap.
According to many concert-going Victorians, the Victoria Symphony continues to move from strength to strength. Some in the audience must have heard elements of Ravel's Concerto and Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony performed so many times - both live and in recordings - that the music runs the risk of becoming stale; yet the Orchestra's tone is brilliant enough to breathe new life into these two iconic works, if indeed any such resuscitation is needed.
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