SSO Chamber Series: Enchanting Ravel

4 OCTOBER 2024 7.30pm, Victoria Concert Hall

SSO CHAMBER SERIES

ENCHANTING RAVEL

PROGRAMME Ravel Sonata for Violin and Cello (21 mins) Xu Jueyi violin Guo Hao cello

Ravel Introduction & Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and Strings (11 mins) Gulnara Mashurova harp Evgueni Brokmiller flute Ma Yue clarinet

Chan Yoong-Han violin Nikolai Koval violin Marietta Ku viola Jamshid Saydikarimov cello

Intermission (20 mins) Franck Piano Quintet in F minor (36 mins) Ye Lin violin Cao Can violin Marietta Ku viola

Jamshid Saydikarimov cello Ning An piano

CONCERT DURATION: 1 hr 45 min (including 20 mins intermission)

Programme notes This retrospective programme of chamber music looks at various parts of Ravel’s life, from a post-WWI work to a period of early maturity in chamber compositions, and finally, a composer from a generation before him whose mastery of chamber music writing and use of cyclic form in music influenced the composers who followed.

In 1894, when a new musical movement of Impressionism was all the rage, the young Maurice Ravel was completely charmed by Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune.

Upon hearing the music at its premiere, Ravel was reportedly reduced to tears, saying that he only then ‘understood what music is’.

In the following decade, Ravel firmly established himself in this new style with his String Quartet (notes available in the 3 Oct programme), modelled upon Debussy’s own. In the small Parisian artistic society where everyone knew everyone, the relationship between the two composers can be best described as ‘frenemies’ – cordial, slightly friendly, with a touch of rivalry.

Programme notes When Debussy left his wife Lily for the famous French singer Emma Bardac, Lily shot herself in an attempted suicide.

Ravel and a few friends showed their disapproval at Debussy’s conduct by raising money for her hospital bills, and in doing so, provoked the ire of Debussy.

Having served as an ambulance driver during the First World War, Ravel had seen many deaths, including the deaths of some close friends; his approach to music and life was (whether consciously or unconsciously) altered after the war in 1918. Having lost Debussy in 1918 as well, he embarked on writing a work dedicated to Debussy’s memory when asked to contribute to a special supplement of music magazine La Revue Musicale for publication in December 1920. Other composers who contributed works were the likes of Bartók, Dukas, Falla, Roussel, Satie, and Stravinsky.

Ravel’s submission was a piece for violin and cello, which later became the first movement of his Sonata for Violin and Cello.

Sonata for Violin and Cello

MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937) I. Allegro II. Très vif

III. Lent IV. Vif, avec entrain

This four-movement sonata took two years for Ravel to write, the ‘long period of conscious gestation’ was necessary for him to see ‘with growing precision, the form and evolution which the subsequent work should have as a whole’. The absence of a piano makes the work sound linear but not empty; Ravel’s aim was to strip the music to the bare bones, renounce harmonic charm, and emphasise the melodies instead.

The sonata, like the quartet in the programme before, is written in a cyclical form, where material recurs in various guises throughout the different movements, uniting it as a whole. Featuring blazing string-crossing, harmonics and snapping pizzicatos, the music pushes the technical limits of both musicians, and presents a wide range of moods. From the first movement, we notice that, stripped of harmonies, Ravel has written melody after melody in a highly polyphonic work filled with dissonances. Further unsettling the listener, he writes some parts of the cello to be higher than the violin, and then brings the cello down to its bass range.

Sonata for Violin and Cello

In the jazzy Scherzo, contrasts are made from the plucking and bowing textures. The prayer-like Lent , whose material is taken from the second theme in the first movement, is a beautiful and heartfelt tribute to Debussy; before Ravel brings back a number of themes in the polyphonic, joyful fourth movement Vif, avec entrain (lively, with spirit).

Introduction & Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and Strings

MAURICE RAVEL Just as there was competition among piano makers for who could make the best piano in France in the early 1800s, two of those companies, Pleyel and Érard, were still competing over the design and mechanics of the concert harp, each with a different solution to equip the harp with chromatic tones.

Pleyel had commissioned Debussy a work in 1903 which resulted in Danse sacrée et Danse profane for harp and string quartet; and Érard tried to one-up Pleyel by commissioning Debussy’s competitor Ravel, to write a chamber piece featuring their pedal harp.

Because of procrastination, a looming deadline, and an invitation to go on a private cruise, Ravel rushed out the Introduction & Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and String Quartet within ‘a week of continuous work and three sleepless nights’. It is not known if Ravel really liked the work, as he did not mention it in his catalogue of works or his autobiography, yet he included it in his concerts, and it was one of the few works he chose to record when recording technology was at its infancy.

Introduction & Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and Strings

A mini harp concerto of sorts, the work comprises two sections in a single movement, a short, languid Introduction that contains themes and motifs which are developed in the following Allegro. Glissandi, harmonics and an array of harp techniques are used in contrast with the timbres of the strings and winds, showing off the Érard in its full chromatic glory.

The music is quintessentially in Ravel’s Impressionist style: sparkling, animated, and always well-balanced.

Piano Quintet in F minor

CÉSAR FRANCK (1822–1890) I. Molto moderato quasi lento – Allegro II. Lento con molto sentiment III. Allegro non troppo ma con fuoco

When Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor was premiered in 1879 at the Société Nationale de Musique, two people present were visibly displeased: Madame Félicité Franck, the composer’s wife, and composer Camille Saint-Saëns who was sight-reading the piano part, to whom the work was dedicated. The reason for this displeasure was possibly the same: a young lady named Augusta Holmès, whose affections both Saint-Saëns and Franck were competing for.

Holmès had been taking private lessons in composition with Franck, who had been enamoured by her glamour. Franck may have poured his passion into writing this Quintet, for which Nadia Boulanger remarked contains more ppp and fff markings than any other chamber piece.

Piano Quintet in F minor

Two tempestuous, brooding outer movements sandwich a milder, middle movement. Franck had been influenced by the cyclical forms of Liszt and the chromaticism of Wagner, incorporating these in the music in his own way. Two contrasting themes are introduced at the beginning of first movement – a fierce downward scale and motif by the violin, answered by a gentler, flowing response from the piano.

These themes are later developed in the following Allegro section and even combined in a moment of escalated tension, then the movement patters down into an emotionally exhausted close.

A mood of unfulfilled, wistful longing underscores the second movement , with shifts from minor to major and back again without warning. The stormy atmosphere returns to the finale, where tremolo violins begin the movement without a melody; and the modulations in the music give one the sense of instability which pervades the entire movement even when the main melody appears.

Among fans of the music was composer Édouard Lalo, who described the music as an ‘explosion’ of colours, and the young Claude Debussy, who called Franck a ‘modulating machine’!

Programme notes by Natalie Ng

UPCOMING SSO CONCERTS AT THE VICTORIA CONCERT HALL Fire, Fantasia and Pulcinella 11 & 12 Oct, 7.30pm Singapore Symphony Orchestra Stefan Blunier conductor Moritz Ernst piano

SSO Baroque Festival: Music of the Knight 31 Oct, 7.30pm Singapore Symphony Orchestra Willi Zimmermann leader & violin

SSO Baroque Festival: Water Music Sweet 1 Nov, 7.30pm Singapore Symphony Orchestra Willi Zimmermann leader & violin

For more details, visit sso.org.sg/whats-on.

The vision of the Singapore Symphony Group is to be a leading arts organisation that engages, inspires and reflects Singapore through musical excellence. Our mission is to create memorable shared experiences with music. Through the SSO and its affiliated performing groups, we spread the love for music, nurture talent and enrich our diverse communities.

The SSO is a charity and not-for-profit organisation.

You can support us by donating at www.sso.org.sg/donate.