Prom 48: Sir Simon Rattle conducts L’enfant et les sortilèges 18.08.18

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30
ON TV
Royal Albert Hall


Maurice Ravel: Mother Goose (ballet)
Maurice Ravel: Shéhérazade
Maurice Ravel: L'enfant et les sortilèges - (concert performance; sung in French, with surtitles)

Magdalena Kožená mezzo-soprano
Patricia Bardon Mother/Shepherd/Dragonfly
Jane Archibald Fire/Nightingale/Princess
Anna Stéphany Chair/White Cat/Chinese Cup/Squirrel
Elizabeth Watts Shepherdess/Bat/Owl
Teapot/Little Old Man/Tree-Frog
Gavan Ring Grandfather Clock/Black Cat
David Shipley Tree/Armchair
London Symphony Chorus
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Simon Rattle conductor


Simon Rattle, the London Symphony Orchestra and an all-star cast, including Magdalena Kožena and Patricia Bardon, present Ravel's magical opera L'enfant et les sortilèges.

Ravel's fairy-tale ballet Mother Goose and sensuous song-cycle Shéhérazade complete the programme.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I note more than a hint of musical nepotism once again.

[Pulcinella]

I note more than a hint of musical nepotism once again.

I'm wondering how Lady R will come across as the child.

L'enfant is perhaps my favourite Ravel score: he just packs everything in in such a relatively short piece. The transformation to the garden scene with the hopping frogs is simply exquisite.

[jayne lee wilson]

Heavens! What was that..?!

[teamsaint]

Squeaky Big Bird?

[bluestateprommer]

Wonderfully refined reading of the complete Ma mère l'Oye (not the suite, contrary to Tom Service at the outset), with the LSO sounding absolutely beautiful and in top form. Great sign for the rest of this Prom. Following on Pulcinella's comment, Ravel is my own 'desert island composer', if I were asked to choose only one composer whose works I could bring for long-term listening.

Actually, in this instance, the 'musical nepotism' doesn't bother me, given the caliber of both artists of this particular couple involved. (If you want really egregious nepotism, look at our idiot Preznit putting his totally unqualified son-in-law in charge of Middle East policy, but I digress.) Given that many musical artist couples spend too much time apart, which risks the relationship foundering all too often, it's actually rather good when couples can be together in the same place, to spend time together and with their kids, if kids are involved. (To digress even further, at Santa Fe Opera, Alek Shrader (tenor) and Daniela Mack (mezzo) have sung in separate productions during this season, which allows the family to stay together.) But back to the matter at hand....

Heavens! What was that..?!

It was the sound of an audience member sneezing spectacularly, AFAICT, during 'Petit Poucet'. (I've sneezed somewhat like that in the past, though happily not during a concert, at least not yet.)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I note more than a hint of musical nepotism once again.

Oooh - a smidgin unfair, Alpie. Rattle isn't exactly a Richard Bonynge, and can give thoroughly respectable performances on his own on a good day.

[jayne lee wilson]

In Part One, I didn't take to Rattle's Ravel at all...

Oh, it's very polished, orchestrally "expert", but I miss evocativeness, sensuousness, a certain French schwung to the way it moves....

Refined perhaps but the LSO sounds rather cool and distant (metaphorically and to some extent physically too) on HDs tonight. The strings sound efficient, rather than warm. In Asie... I missed the lovely, subtle rocking-motion, like a gentle sea-swell around the schooner, those very La Mer-ish sonorities felt underplayed. This Ravel has carefully-nurtured detail yes, but a little flat, too smooth, missing the ebb and flow, the longer line.

Nor did I care much for Kozena's French diction, I'm afraid...

[bluestateprommer]

Oooh - a smidgin unfair, Alpie. Rattle isn't exactly a Richard Bonynge, and can give thoroughly respectable performances on his own on a good day.

Indeed, as he and MK did here, much more than thoroughly respectable. I actually haven't heard MK sing in a while (even her recordings that I have in my collection), so the timbre of her voice struck me fresh on this year. I also share Pulcinella's question as to how MK will convey l'Enfant in part II, as I still have some residual memories of Chloe Briot's brilliant spoiled-brat reading with the Chicago SO 3 or so years back. SSR kept the sound of the orchestra terrifically refined as in the first work, but not simply cloning the first piece in terms of overall sound.

PS: The second half was good, if not quite on the level of the first half for me, at least. MK's voice does sound too old for l'Enfant (she is 45 or thereabouts, besides being the mother of 3), and part of me did wonder if maybe she and Anna Stephany might have switched roles. But MK was fine, including, according to TS, being dressed up in a child's sailor suit and hat. It was interesting to hear some audience laughs (no spectacular sneezes that I could tell), which may be explained by what would seem to be the presence of surtitles above the RAH stage, if this Tweet is anything to go by. (This does beg the question if surtitles were used for Pelleas et Melisande earlier in the season.) SSR didn't rush unduly the more manic moments for l'Arithmetic and others, and as before, had the LSO sounding really on fine form.

[jayne lee wilson]

Much better for me in Part Two - I've only heard L'Enfant a handful of times, and I'll leave detailed appraisal to the true lovers - but the orchestra and the cast had exactly that warmth, presence and animated characterisation I'd missed earlier. (And anything with cats in it is a draw...)

It helped of course, to have a very detailed synopsis to hand of what is a very detailed tale, orchestrally as well as verbally....

[Simon B]

The LSO once again on the kind of form frequently heard since the end of the Gergiev era...

Playing of classy distinction in every department, comprehensively in a different league to anything I've heard this season - in amongst a lot of really rather good performances overall.

It only really came together as a complete package in L'enfant though. Over manicured or micromanaged in the first half from Rattle - a lesser but still present tendency at times.

Exquisite sonorities in L'enfant among much else. A delight.

[edashtav]

The LSO once again on the kind of form frequently heard since the end of the Gergiev era...

Playing of classy distinction in every department, comprehensively in a different league to anything I've heard this season - in amongst a lot of really rather good performances overall.

It only really came together as a complete package in L'enfant though. Over manicured or micromanaged in the first half from Rattle - a lesser but still present tendency at times.

Exquisite sonorities in L'enfant among much else. A delight.

[Pulcinella]

Very much enjoyed the BBC4 transmission last night.
While not warming to Lady R's voice much more than I did originally, she was certainly 'involved' in both the song cycle and the opera, clearly relishing both. The rest of the cast were excellent, and it was interesting to have a larger chorus than one might expect (and have in a usual staged production).

Did anyone else spot that the TV subtitles were different from what was being projected in the hall? I wonder why.

But the real star of the show was Ravel: as was said several times, what a superb orchestrator he was. It was a delight to see how some of the sound world he created for L'enfant was produced (I don't have a copy of the score): that double bass effect at the start just after the plaintive two oboes have played their 'bored child' bit (I'd never thought of it quite like that before), for example.

[BBMmk2]

A concert of high class music making.