Steven Isserlis and the HKPO under Yan Pascal Tortelier

Saturday night at the Cultural Centre has now become a perpetual delight. Last Saturday was no exception. A famous British cellist and a French conductor appeared with the HKPO for an all French programme by Berlioz, Debussy and Ravel sponsored by the French Government as part of the promotion of France under the theme French Month of May. The first artist was Steven Isserlis, a master cellist and the second was Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor, son of famous cellist Paul Tortelier, under whom one of my Japanese friends Mr Sato studied the cello in Paris many years ago.

The evening started very very quietly when the HKPO whispered its way through the Scène d'amour Act 2 scene 3 (the Love Scene) of Berlioz's 1.5 hour long opera Opera Roméo et Juliette, followed by the more lively "chase" sequence in Act II scene 2, Scherzo: La reine Mab, reine des songes ( Queen Mab Scherzo) and  then finally the fairly explosive Roméo Seul (Romeo Alone) Grande fete chez Capulet. According to the Programme Notes, after Berlioz wrote the first two symphonies Symphonie fantastique and Harold en Italie, he started to write symphonies with voice parts and Paganini threw him a challenge of 20,000 franc two days after he heard the final movement of Harold en Italie to make Beethoven live again. Berlioz then started to work this symphony which he called a "Dramatic symphony after Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet" after he saw the play in Paris on 15th Septmber, 1827 and when he introduced the work, he wrote "The very sublimity of this love made its depiction so dangerous for the musician that he had to give his imagination a freedom that sung words would not have provided, resorting instead to instrumental language which is richer, more varied, less precise and by its indefiniteness incomparably more powerful.".  In the Love Scene, we hear the part "le jardin de Capulet silencieux et deserte, Les jeune Capulets sortant de la fete en chantant des reminiscence de la musique du bal " where Romeo declared his love beneath the balcony of Capulet's house. We then heard the part called Queen Mab Scherzo, which Berlioz considered "virtually unplayable" by a large orchestra because of the extreme contrasts as it was so swift and delicate. But the HKPO did very well indeed. Then in Romeo Alone. his loneliness is depicted by the oboe solo, later overcome by the noise of the festivities at the Capulet's House. This scene is regarded by Berlioz as his favorite when he wrote his Memoire. He was impressed by the swift passion, "burning as lava, radiantly pure as an angel's voice, imperious, irresistible". It was a very programmatic music and Wagner was said to have learned much from the way Berlioz wrote this opera when the former used some of the techniques in his Tristan und Isolde in the same way that Berlioz learned from Beethoven.

Yan Pascal Tortelier studied under Nadia Boulanger at the Paris Conservatoire, then learned conducting from Franco Ferrara of Siena and became the chief conductor of the BBC Phiharmonic from 1992 to 2003 and is now its Conductor Laureate. He has also worked extensively with London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Ochestre de Paris, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala Milan, the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Baltimore and Pittsburg Symphonies, Montreal Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra and since March 2009 is the Principal Conductor of the Sáo Paulo Symphony. He is a tall man with silvery grey hair who conducts with great energy. As he moves the orchestra through the various sections of music, he would sometimes leave his feet over the edge of the rostrum, move his body up and down, and would sometimes jump backward and then suddenly lunge forward. Sometimes, he would conduct with just one hand, sometimes two. He holds his arms quite high as if he had got prongs for arms which he would dangle down according to need and would suddenly jab one of them forward to indicate the start of play of particular sections of the orchestra. His head would bob up and down and sway from side to side in quick motion with his frizzy grey white hair following slightly behind in time. It was a delight to watch all by itself.

The next piece of the evening was  a composition arranged by Sally Beamish (whose husband is a cellist) who got together various fragments done by Debussy and made of them a Suite pour violoncelle et Orchestre with the part of the cello played by Steven Isserlis, described in the Programme Notes as "acclaimed worldwide for his musicality and techniques, equally at home in chamber performances, recital or in concerts with the world's most prestigious orchestras and conductors.".  The piece was first premiered on 2nd March, 2007 by Steven Isserlis with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra of Minnesota under Douglas Boyd. Only the Intermezzo and the Scherzo were orginally written by Debussy for the cello.  Beamish added three new movements from Debussy's early works, two of them being Danse Bohémienne and Reverie and the third being his Nuit d'étoiles.  I do not not know whether or not it is the style of famous cellists. His hairstyle bears remarkable similarity to another great cellist Maisky, sticking out as if he got radiating wire springs for hair. When he played, he would sway his head with great effort so we are treated to a spectacle of a bowed head with unruly hair swinging from side to side close to the bottom of the neck of the cello and almost hugging its strings. But he played with great finesse and delicacy and with a kind of sustained energy in pressing his bow across the strings which makes the music so alive, so filled with feeling and therefore so moving. He is a great cellist. He also recognized the great play from our lead cellist Richard Bamping and went specially over to shake his hand after he finished the piece. Isserlis got tremendous  applauses. He was so happy that he played two short "encores" for us.

The piece after the intermssion was Ravel's  La Valse. I have often heard this piece played by the piano but it is the first time that I heard the piece played by the orchestra. I learned from the Programme Notes that it was first a piece for two pianos which premiered in April 1920 which Ravel revised later for the orchestra. When it was so presented, it was called "a choreographic poem for orchestra." He described it thus: " Fantastic and fatal whirling clouds give glimpses, through rifts,of couples dancing. The clouds scatter, little by little. One sees an immense hall peopled with a twirling crowd. The scene is gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers bursts forth fortissimo.". I like this piece. It has some very colorful orchestration. Ravel is really a master of orchestration and sound effects. It fully captured the joy of movement and of the desire to live life to the full in the late 19th century Vienna, the most glorious part in the history of Austro-Hungarian Empire, when Vienna was confidently moving out from the Romantic period into a less aristrocratic and formal and yet cultured and freer form of middle class fun and revelry but what Ravel added to the waltz was a certain choppinesss, a certain dizzying pace, a certain metallic frenziness and  a certain verve from the brass section which the waltz normally does not have, especially towards its very very dramatic finale. The Vienna waltzes usually close with a slightly worked up recapture of its soft melodic main motif.  The applauses were long and enthusiastic. I think conductors do like to visit Hong Kong. We are so appreciative and so generous with our hand claps. I think that is only right. Good music should always be applauded.