RSNO La Mer Usher Hall Edinburgh 8th March 2024 Review
RSNO La Mer at the Usher Hall Edinburgh tonight was a celebration of two things – French music and the evocative soundscapes of the sea. The latter which has been the inspiration for so much music both classical and many other genres was reflected here with music by Ravel and Debussy.
Opening tonight’s programme of music was perhaps the most important part of the evening with the RSNO teaming up with the young people of the Big Noise Wester Hailes project. The RSNO has a history of working with music charity Sistema Scotland (of which Nicola Benedetti has for many years been the Big Noise’s “Big Sister”) and delivers the Big Noise. The Wester Hailes project is a new one, only 18 months old, and this was the first opportunity for the RSNO to work with the Wester Hailes project. Currently Big Noise Wester Hailes is only working with strings, although a music instrument expansion is planned soon.
The opportunity to introduce children of all ages to music (any type of music) cannot be underestimated and the opportunity to be on the Usher Hall stage with the RSNO to perform two short works, “Saturn” and “Mission Mars” created by composer Joëlle Broad specially for those learning stringed instruments is a memory that will stay with these children forever no matter what their future paths in their life may be.
Today, March 8th is also International Women’s Day, so it is more than appropriate that the RSNO are highlighting the work of French composer Mel Bonis (1858-1937). I have to admit that until this evening I had not heard this name, but clearly this was a woman of huge musical talent and her output of over 300 pieces to her name illustrates both how productive her career was and how poorly women have been treated in the classical music world for centuries. Thankfully times are changing fast and the RSNO and many other orchestras across the world are now programming work by these often neglected composers into their performance schedules and along the way bringing some truly wonderful works into the light and to new audiences who finally appreciate them for what they truly are.
The works of Mel Bonis are seeing the light of day largely due to the work of her great-grand-daughter who has been collecting and collating this musical legacy together and, tonight, Bonis Trois Femmes de légende, Three Pieces for Orchestra introduced us all to three wonderful and very distinct tone poems dedicated to women of legend – Ophélie, Salome, and Cleopatra.
Words continued to be a large part of the next work by Ernest Chausson (1855-1899), “Poème de l’amour et de la mer” which also featured the always impressive and interpretive vocals of Scottish born Mezzo-Soprano, Catriona Morison.
The soundscape of the sea was the inspiration for the final two works in tonight’s programme and each had its own very distinctive use of the orchestra to bring that sense and feeling of both the calmness and the sheer power of the sea to life and also the speed with which it can change from one to the other. First was Ravel and “Une barque sur l’océan”. Originally this work was composed by Ravel for piano but later he arranged it for a large orchestra and his use of percussion was perfect here, nothing was too small to be of importance, even the humble triangle. Interwoven with the harps, strings, wind instruments and everything else that the RSNO could offer, this was Ravel clearly defining just how expressive his use of an orchestra could be.
Last, but not least tonight, was the title work of this programme and Claude Debussy and “La Mer”. Here Debussy is using a slightly different approach to Ravel in how he is creating his evocative homage to the sea. Perhaps this is because this is not a literal interpretation of what he saw sitting looking out at the water but a work that was composed away from the sea that recalls Debussy’s many memories of being beside the water and looking out across it. Interwoven here are the memories of those visits and no doubt many other secondary emotions and memories associated with those days.
Conducting everything this evening with his usual interpretive vision and attention to all the colours and emotions of the music, was conductor Thomas Søndergård.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Opening tonight’s programme of music was perhaps the most important part of the evening with the RSNO teaming up with the young people of the Big Noise Wester Hailes project. The RSNO has a history of working with music charity Sistema Scotland (of which Nicola Benedetti has for many years been the Big Noise’s “Big Sister”) and delivers the Big Noise. The Wester Hailes project is a new one, only 18 months old, and this was the first opportunity for the RSNO to work with the Wester Hailes project. Currently Big Noise Wester Hailes is only working with strings, although a music instrument expansion is planned soon.
The opportunity to introduce children of all ages to music (any type of music) cannot be underestimated and the opportunity to be on the Usher Hall stage with the RSNO to perform two short works, “Saturn” and “Mission Mars” created by composer Joëlle Broad specially for those learning stringed instruments is a memory that will stay with these children forever no matter what their future paths in their life may be.
Today, March 8th is also International Women’s Day, so it is more than appropriate that the RSNO are highlighting the work of French composer Mel Bonis (1858-1937). I have to admit that until this evening I had not heard this name, but clearly this was a woman of huge musical talent and her output of over 300 pieces to her name illustrates both how productive her career was and how poorly women have been treated in the classical music world for centuries. Thankfully times are changing fast and the RSNO and many other orchestras across the world are now programming work by these often neglected composers into their performance schedules and along the way bringing some truly wonderful works into the light and to new audiences who finally appreciate them for what they truly are.
The works of Mel Bonis are seeing the light of day largely due to the work of her great-grand-daughter who has been collecting and collating this musical legacy together and, tonight, Bonis Trois Femmes de légende, Three Pieces for Orchestra introduced us all to three wonderful and very distinct tone poems dedicated to women of legend – Ophélie, Salome, and Cleopatra.
Words continued to be a large part of the next work by Ernest Chausson (1855-1899), “Poème de l’amour et de la mer” which also featured the always impressive and interpretive vocals of Scottish born Mezzo-Soprano, Catriona Morison.
The soundscape of the sea was the inspiration for the final two works in tonight’s programme and each had its own very distinctive use of the orchestra to bring that sense and feeling of both the calmness and the sheer power of the sea to life and also the speed with which it can change from one to the other. First was Ravel and “Une barque sur l’océan”. Originally this work was composed by Ravel for piano but later he arranged it for a large orchestra and his use of percussion was perfect here, nothing was too small to be of importance, even the humble triangle. Interwoven with the harps, strings, wind instruments and everything else that the RSNO could offer, this was Ravel clearly defining just how expressive his use of an orchestra could be.
Last, but not least tonight, was the title work of this programme and Claude Debussy and “La Mer”. Here Debussy is using a slightly different approach to Ravel in how he is creating his evocative homage to the sea. Perhaps this is because this is not a literal interpretation of what he saw sitting looking out at the water but a work that was composed away from the sea that recalls Debussy’s many memories of being beside the water and looking out across it. Interwoven here are the memories of those visits and no doubt many other secondary emotions and memories associated with those days.
Conducting everything this evening with his usual interpretive vision and attention to all the colours and emotions of the music, was conductor Thomas Søndergård.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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