VoxCarnyx

City Halls, Glasgow

For many City Hall attendees or BBC Radio 3 listeners, the first half of Thursday’s BBC SSO programme would likely have been a journey into the unknown: a symphony by the under-championed French composer Elsa Barraine, and a piano concerto by her direct contemporary, and equally underexposed, Moroccan-born Frenchman Maurice Ohana.

Beyond that, conductor Ilan Volkov and the SSO ventured into more well-worn Gallic territory: the perfumed ballroom swirls of Ravel’s Valse nobles et sentimentales, and Debussy’s intoxicating Nocturnes (who else recalls these from the 1970s Higher Music syllabus?) adorned in the final Sirènes by the upper voices of the RCS Chamber Choir. All in all, this was a colourful French feast that coupled tasteful gratification with explorative curiosity.

Why, for instance, do we rarely hear Barraine’s Second Symphony, written in 1938 as a chilling portent of impending war, and subtitled “Voina”, the Russian for war? Barraine was Jewish and remarkably successful in her youth, being only the fourth woman to win the prestigious Prix de Rome. Bitingly rhythmic, darkened by angular dissonance and tense textures, the Symphony’s punchy concision and brutal neoclassicism – a trend she otherwise generally eschewed – convey a powerfully trenchant message. 

You wonder just how personal this performance was, given Volkov’s recent outspokenness and brief arrest in relation to the Israel-Gaza conflict, or more generally the current volcanic European situation. There was certainly fire in the belly of the SSO as they negotiated the militaristic stringency of the opening Allegro, the haunting pathos and coiled heart-filled lyricism of the March Funèbre, and a Finale whose accumulating tension – a triumphalism borne out of vivacious dances, hints of a jazz vibe, even a glittering aura preemptive of Hollywood’s John Williams – offered a welcome, if wishful, release. 

Ohana’s 1981 Piano Concerto, with the thoroughly convincing Nicolas Hodges as soloist, took us to more avant-garde territory: a fantasy world of textures, whether densely ruminative, shimmering à la Messiaen, dramatised through truculent interplay, or wildly delirious as frenzied Bartok-like pianism vies with the orchestra’s dizzy iridescence. Present, too, are lingering references to the composer’s part-Andalusian lineage, dreamy whiffs of flamenco, and the spiralling ecstasy of the final climax, all of which combined in an often mesmerising performance.

As such, the Ohana also sat perfectly as a bridge to the Ravel and Debussy. Volkov milked the Valse nobles et sentimentales – a golden miscellany of waltz styles wrapped in a panoply of silken orchestral extravagance – of all its supple opulence, evoking subliminal references to the tidal surges of the same composer’s La Valse, or the playful delicacy of his Mother Goose Suite. The SSO embraced its charm at every juncture, be it the music’s ravishing ebb and flow or the wafting subtleties of the orchestration.

Finally Debussy, and the three dream-like “twilight scenes” that constitute Nocturnes. Colour and texture were again the prime focus, Volkov eliciting from the opening Nuages a magical luminosity, the images bold and tangible yet exquisitely interwoven, countered stirringly by the Carnival-like exuberance of Fêtes, its muted fanfares tempering any potential overindulgence. The choristers in Sirènes gave the final movement its ethereal glow, perhaps a little harsh to begin with, but settling to align with the wistful hues of the orchestra. 

Ken Walton

This concert was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and is available on BBC Sounds for 30 days