SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Ravel, Debussy and Stravinsky: Boston Symphony Orchestra, Susanna Mälkki, Symphony Hall, Boston, 25.4.2009 (KH)

Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin
Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite 
Debussy: Petite Suite 
Stravinsky: Symphony in C


I went into Saturday’s concert nursing something of a disappointment; but later I emerged from the hall exhilarated. This program was originally to include the Shostakovich Ninth Symphony – a charming piece, and one which I should make any effort to hear live.  But the conductor originally engaged for the program was Yuri Temirkanov, who canceled all of his upcoming United States engagements earlier this year. Any resentment I might have harbored for the change in program however, was more than amply answered by Susanna Mälkki’s stupendous debut with the BSO.

The Debussy was the token 19^th-century offering on the program.  The Petite Suite is thus an early work, written by Debussy for piano four-hands with amateurs in mind, and which was much later orchestrated not by Debussy himself but by Henri Büsser – I mention this piece first because it contrasted rather peculiarly with the Ravel.  Where Ravel orchestrated Le tombeau himself, and employed a smaller ensemble (preserving the piano original’s clarity and delicacy), the Petite Suite in orchestral guise seems to me over-scored, both in comparison to the source score, and to Debussy’s own orchestral writing.  Consider my objection a nicety, though, for the music is inarguably pleasant.

There was no soloist per se in this program, but right from the Prélude which opens Le tombeau de Couperin, principal oboist John Ferillo was in the spotlight.  Throughout the concert there were oboe solos which are in the short list of an oboist’s orchestral excerpts.  Nor was Mr Ferillo alone in excellence here; all the winds balanced together beautifully, particularly in the exquisitely modulated minor-second appoggiature in the Forlane.  This is the sort of ensemble detail (which in the piano original is as easy as hitting two adjacent keys) in which the artistry of the Boston players shines.  The nearest thing to a false note in the Ravel:  the trumpet was perhaps a shade over-prominent in the first two numbers.

Pulcinella is in some respects the least likely item in all the Stravinsky catalogue.  At first Stravinsky thought his cousin Dyagilev had taken leave of his senses, in suggesting that he rework music of (as they then thought) Pergolesi.  The resulting score is neither the comparatively straightforward re-orchestration of the Bach Vom Himmel hoch canonic variations, or the Monumentum pro Gesualdo di Venosa;  nor the more thoroughly ‘Stravinskified’ stylistic absorption of (e.g.) Apollon musagète.  Italianate and mercurial, Pulcinella is by method sui generis in Stravinsky’s oeuvre, and yet in brilliance of manner, completely characteristic.  The Serenata (which in the complete ballet is sung by a tenor) features phrases traded off between solo oboe, and solo muted violin (concertmaster Malcolm Lowe, naturally, with grace and charm); the winds again shone in the Gavotta, particularly Elizabeth Rowe (principal flute) and Bill Hudgins (principal clarinet).  Expertly colored passages follow one another in ever-fresh succession in this score, notably the flute/bassoon/horn trio in the 2^nd variation of the Gavotta.  Contrabassist Edwin Barker and principal trombonist Toby Oft made their impudent duet in the Vivo sound easy, and after that bit of sonic buffoonery, the horns and strings at the start of the Menuetto were especially sweet.  (On a local note, the first Boston Symphony performances of a Pulcinella Suite, from the MS. by Pierre Monteux on 23 & 23 December 1922, were the first anywhere.)

This Saturday’s performance of the Stravinsky Symphony in C was gripping and revelatory.  In March of 2007, the band played the piece under Dutoit;  there was nothing particularly wrong about that pass through the score, but Mälkki and the orchestra were on fire with it this weekend.  The string choir played with mastery, in a symphony which demands a type of athleticism atypical of ‘The Symphony’;  that must have been a large part of the difference.  The bassoons and trombones in the subterranean quiet at the start of the Largo fourth movement played this (similarly atypical) Stygian chorale with clarity and profile, and the piece wound down with ethereal, richly-voiced chords in the winds which are a Stravinsky hallmark, and which have to be experienced to be believed.

Ms Mälkki handled the entire program with unfailing aplomb, with energetic grace, and the orchestra not only sounded, but looked their complete respect for her musicianship.  The occasion for her debut may have been a regrettable cancellation, but there was not the least shade of regret in the music she made with the orchestra. We hope for many visits more. 

Karl Henning


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