SCO Ravel Piano Concerto with Steven Osborne Queen's Hall 25th April 2024 Review
SCO Ravel Piano Concerto with Steven Osborne at The Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight was the chance to enjoy one of the most wonderful piano concertos ever created performed by one of the world’s leading concert pianists and a musical programme with one connective theme throughout everything – the city of Paris, France.
This Parisian connection is by the fact that two of the composers whose work was being performed tonight, Arthur Honegger and Maurice Ravel, spent a large amount of their lives in Paris, and the third, Franz Joseph Haydn connects because his symphony no 87 is the last of six specially commissioned symphonies that he wrote for performances in Paris. A closer connection to Paris is, however, definitely between Honegger and Ravel as both were living and writing there in the 1920s and absorbing into their music the then new sounds of the Jazz age.
Opening the music for this evening was HONEGGER Pastorale d’été (1920). At first glance the title suggests a quiet, rustic summer landscape, but in reality the music is something very different. This is the composer’s reaction to escaping the noise and bustle of a very busy and crowded Paris and escaping all of the pressures of life that were then upon him to escape into the Swiss Alps. Here you can almost hear Honegger give a deep sigh of relief as he got those moments of peace and calmness of mind and soul that he was so desperately seeking. Still though, there are hints of the sounds of Paris and jazz music meandering their way into his alpine retreat.
There is no doubt, however, how much the then new vitality of jazz music influenced RAVEL Piano Concerto in G (1929-1931). The first movement is an homage to the very sounds of Paris itself, its life, people, rhythms and music and there are unmistakable influences here from Gershwin’s 1924 “Rhapsody in Blue”. Perhaps this is no coincidence as the two were friends and admirers of each other’s work and had visited more than the odd jazz club or two together. Maybe “Rhapsody in Paris” would have been a better name for this jazz infused first movement.
The second movement of this work is in stark contrast to the energy of the first movement and is almost tranquil, somehow very calming to listen to and certainly one of the most beautiful pieces ever created for piano. That calmness is suddenly though shattered by the at times frantic pace of the third and final movement.
This piano concerto is many things on so many different levels, but it is also a technical challenge for any pianist attempting to perform it and it was originally written to be performed by the composer himself. Declining health made this work impossible for Ravel to perform himself to the technical standard that he wanted to and it was also his last major work to be written. Some two years of work went into this concerto and Ravel could at least console himself with the fact that he had created a modern masterpiece.
Technical skills and an almost instinctive understanding of how to breathe life, vitality, emotion, and his own distinctive musical personality into any work that he performs are in part what have made Steven Osborne one of the world’s busiest and most popular concert pianists, and all of this combined with just his obvious pleasure at performing this work made this a very special evening for everyone.
An extra treat from Steven to his audience tonight was his very personal interpretation of Keith Jarret’s “My Song”.
Still staying with Ravel was his wonderful, but at times mysterious, “Pavane pour une infante défunte”. Who this infanta really was, how old she was when she died, and even the title itself relating to the music at all are all mysteries that Ravel teased at during his lifetime, but without any real definitive answer.
Whatever the title, whatever its meaning, the music itself, written in 1899 at the start of Ravel’s career, is a work full of joy which you can imagine an infanta might have danced to in a Spanish court once upon a time. Again though, despite the composer’s own Spanish connections, this is not derivative of Spanish music.
For the final music of this evening we move back in time to the very different Paris of the late 18th century and HAYDN Symphony No 87. For me, the fact that one of the great composers of his day, the man who some would say created what we now know as an orchestra and symphonies, was here working to a commission (and a well-paid one at that). This in some parts is Haydn giving exactly what he is being paid to create, music that will have mass Parisian appeal. Still though, the complexities of music that he builds up in four very different but still connected movements is clearly the work of a musical master at work. As always, Haydn is playing with the listener in parts and no more so than his use of silence when required.
The contribution to tonight’s music of conductor Andrew Manze cannot be left without a special mention too. Congratulations to Andrew Manze too on his appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of the SCO.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This Parisian connection is by the fact that two of the composers whose work was being performed tonight, Arthur Honegger and Maurice Ravel, spent a large amount of their lives in Paris, and the third, Franz Joseph Haydn connects because his symphony no 87 is the last of six specially commissioned symphonies that he wrote for performances in Paris. A closer connection to Paris is, however, definitely between Honegger and Ravel as both were living and writing there in the 1920s and absorbing into their music the then new sounds of the Jazz age.
Opening the music for this evening was HONEGGER Pastorale d’été (1920). At first glance the title suggests a quiet, rustic summer landscape, but in reality the music is something very different. This is the composer’s reaction to escaping the noise and bustle of a very busy and crowded Paris and escaping all of the pressures of life that were then upon him to escape into the Swiss Alps. Here you can almost hear Honegger give a deep sigh of relief as he got those moments of peace and calmness of mind and soul that he was so desperately seeking. Still though, there are hints of the sounds of Paris and jazz music meandering their way into his alpine retreat.
There is no doubt, however, how much the then new vitality of jazz music influenced RAVEL Piano Concerto in G (1929-1931). The first movement is an homage to the very sounds of Paris itself, its life, people, rhythms and music and there are unmistakable influences here from Gershwin’s 1924 “Rhapsody in Blue”. Perhaps this is no coincidence as the two were friends and admirers of each other’s work and had visited more than the odd jazz club or two together. Maybe “Rhapsody in Paris” would have been a better name for this jazz infused first movement.
The second movement of this work is in stark contrast to the energy of the first movement and is almost tranquil, somehow very calming to listen to and certainly one of the most beautiful pieces ever created for piano. That calmness is suddenly though shattered by the at times frantic pace of the third and final movement.
This piano concerto is many things on so many different levels, but it is also a technical challenge for any pianist attempting to perform it and it was originally written to be performed by the composer himself. Declining health made this work impossible for Ravel to perform himself to the technical standard that he wanted to and it was also his last major work to be written. Some two years of work went into this concerto and Ravel could at least console himself with the fact that he had created a modern masterpiece.
Technical skills and an almost instinctive understanding of how to breathe life, vitality, emotion, and his own distinctive musical personality into any work that he performs are in part what have made Steven Osborne one of the world’s busiest and most popular concert pianists, and all of this combined with just his obvious pleasure at performing this work made this a very special evening for everyone.
An extra treat from Steven to his audience tonight was his very personal interpretation of Keith Jarret’s “My Song”.
Still staying with Ravel was his wonderful, but at times mysterious, “Pavane pour une infante défunte”. Who this infanta really was, how old she was when she died, and even the title itself relating to the music at all are all mysteries that Ravel teased at during his lifetime, but without any real definitive answer.
Whatever the title, whatever its meaning, the music itself, written in 1899 at the start of Ravel’s career, is a work full of joy which you can imagine an infanta might have danced to in a Spanish court once upon a time. Again though, despite the composer’s own Spanish connections, this is not derivative of Spanish music.
For the final music of this evening we move back in time to the very different Paris of the late 18th century and HAYDN Symphony No 87. For me, the fact that one of the great composers of his day, the man who some would say created what we now know as an orchestra and symphonies, was here working to a commission (and a well-paid one at that). This in some parts is Haydn giving exactly what he is being paid to create, music that will have mass Parisian appeal. Still though, the complexities of music that he builds up in four very different but still connected movements is clearly the work of a musical master at work. As always, Haydn is playing with the listener in parts and no more so than his use of silence when required.
The contribution to tonight’s music of conductor Andrew Manze cannot be left without a special mention too. Congratulations to Andrew Manze too on his appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of the SCO.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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