Melbourne Symphony Orchestra | Jaime conducts Brahms and Ravel
10 April, Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne, VIC
Jaime Martín – conductor
James Ehnes – violin
MSO Chorus
Warren Trevelyan-Jones – chorus director
Musicians from the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM)
PROGRAM
Brahms, Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
Ravel, Daphnis et Chloé – Symphonie chorégraphique
When the audience finished applauding James Ehnes’ magnificent performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto some would have felt the evening could not get better, and yet it did with Jaime Martin’s ravishingly beautiful and sensuous reading of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé.
Ehnes delivered a flawless technical display of this great concerto, and it would be easy to concentrate on the bravura playing of rapid scale and arpeggio passages, breathtaking double-stopping, perfectly appropriate vibrato and a tonal selection that fitted like a glove for each and every phrase that Brahms wrote in this work. However, all this was simply the method that allowed Ehnes to enchant the audience with a performance of this much loved work that displayed fire, then passion and all the time true to the composer’s intent. The MSO was more than a supportive partner with symphonic intentions in the long introduction to the first movement, and the oboe solo that opens the Adagio was exquisitely, heart-wrenchingly played by Johannes Grosso.
From the very outset of Daphnis et Chloé Martin displayed a grand vision of one of Ravel’s masterpieces. At just under an hour, this work is a showcase of not only the composer’s skill but also a wonderful compendium of music in Paris around 1910. Ravel is often referred to as a great colourist in his orchestral writing, and in this ballet score, colour drips from nearly every bar.
Nicolas Fleury, surely one of the greatest and most sweet-toned hornists around inspired his colleagues to heights of mastery and beauty. Owen Morris, principal trumpet, despatched many tricky solos with ease and elegance and new to the orchestra, principal trombone Jose Milton Vieira plays with a lightness and knows how to hold power in check whilst still delivering vitality.
Each and every woodwind player seemed to adore playing this music that straddles the time of Wagner/Brahms, etc, and the music that came after the Great War, a music full of angst and unknowing. This Ravel score inhabits a world of hope and optimism and is also full of energy and orchestral writing that borders on concerto-like brilliance.
Special mention must go to the string principals and, indeed, the entire string section and the dazzling percussionists.
The use of a choir that is simply about colour and lives mostly in an ethereal world seems, in retrospect, so French, so late Belle Epoque. And also quite stunningly perfect in conception. The preparation and delivery from the MSO Chorus matched everything else in this concert, truly beautiful.
