Ravel, Shostakovich, Mozart: John Friesen (cello), Victoria Symphony Orchestra, Alain Trudel (conductor), Artspring, Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada, 29.10.2006 (MB)

 

 

Artspring, the cultural hub for Salt Spring Island and the venue at which this concert took place, is principally designed for chamber music so it was a surprise to hear that a symphonic concert was being programmed there on Sunday afternoon. The Victoria Symphony Orchestra (at full strength less than 50 players) is a much smaller ensemble than its British Columbia neighbour, the Vancouver Symphony, and whilst that did not present too many problems in either Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin (which is quite modestly orchestrated for Ravel) or Mozart’s Symphony No.40, it did embellish Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No.1 with less power than that work ideally needs. If the sound never really came across as congested that had more to do with the architecture of Artspring which, given its wooden infrastructure, is naturally disposed to highlighting the tonal warmth of instruments, rather than the conductor, Alain Trudel, who seemed intent on smothering the music in unnecessary rubato and deliberately measured tempi.

It is arguable that Ravel’s orchestration of Le Tombeau clarifies the harmony of the original piano version, especially when it comes to the classical dance rhythms that predominate. That is usually the case; but not at this performance. Trudel underplayed the bristling sprightliness of the prelude, and much of the fizz this movement exudes seemed oddly flat. Similarly, spirituality was largely missing from the tender minuet, and the Rigaudon was hardly lively enough to bring the work to its ponderous close. In a word, this was dull, and the performance was only partly rescued by some exquisitely shaped phrasing from the oboist (unnamed in the programme).

Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No.1 needs much more power than it was given here. John Friesen, a professor of cello at Western Washington University, possesses a refined tone – indeed, playing near the bridge of his instrument he achieved some quite remarkably precise harmonics; but for a work that eschews lyricism, this seemed to go in the opposite musical direction playing to beauties that exist in sound only and not in contextual meaning. A feeling of elegy was only intermittently present in the concerto’s moderato; and in the allegro con moto both Friesen and Trudel played safe rather than driving the music inexorably onwards.

Mozart’s Symphony No.40 was described by Charles Rosen as being a work of “passion, violence and grief”. Little of that emerged in this performance, however, which rather than highlighting the works occasional radicality (the destabilizing of keys, for example), looked back towards Bach rather than forward to late Mozart for inspiration. Rarely have I heard an andante in this symphony performed with such reverence to Bach (and so far removed from Mozart’s 6/8 time), or a menuetto that made so little of the cross-accented hemiola rhythm and the subtle changes in rhythm that the Trio brings to the movement. And yet, ironically, this lack of rhythmic awareness made the allegro assai the most convincing movement of the performance: the eight bar phrases, and general squareness of the finale, dutifully emerged.

The playing of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra throughout this concert was generally fine, but Alain Trudel’s less than inspired conducting made me wish my first encounter with this orchestra had been elsewhere and under a more inspirational baton (had, of course, Mr Trudel been using one).

 

 

Marc Bridle