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Details
St Mary-at-Hill Church
Lovat Lane
Billingsgate
City of London
London
EC3R 8EE
England
Programme
Claude Debussy – Prelude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Claude Debussy – Danse 'Tarantelle Styrienne', L.77 (orch. Ravel)
Manuel de Falla – Pour le Tombeau de Claude Debussy (orch. Turner)
Manuel de Falla – El amor brujo
~ Interval ~
Maurice Ravel – La vallée des cloches
Maurice Ravel – Mother Goose, ballet
Performers
Leonora Dawson-Bowling – mezzo-soprano
Michael Turner – Conductor
Bloomsbury Chamber Orchestra
Other concerts in this Series (+)
Programme Note
The 2020 Bloomsbury Chamber Orchestra's spring concert delves deep into a range of strong emotions. With an underlying theme of dance, the orchestra’s programme draws on the music of France and Spain.
Three composers are featured. In chronological order of birth, we first have Claude Debussy (1862 -1918).
The concert opens with his sultry and sensuous “Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune”. A Diaghilev commission, the piece is based on a poem by Mallarme and, when staged as a ballet, was danced by Nijinsky. Debussy wrote of the work that there are “a succession of scenes through which pass the desires and dreams of the faun in the heat of the afternoon. Then, tired of pursuing the timorous flight of nymphs and naiads, he succumbs to intoxicating sleep, in which he can finally realize his dreams of possession in universal Nature.” From the opening, warm and heady flute solo, the piece engulfs the listener in a rich blanket of hedonistic warmth.
Debussy features twice more. His “Danse” (originally for piano) was later orchestrated by fellow Frenchman, Maurice Ravel. This is a bluff and airy piece, contrasting completely with the Prelude that opens the concert. Debussy’s final appearance on the programme is by way of a piece written in homage to him by the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla. Falla’s piece was originally written for guitar, then reworked for piano and later orchestrated. This delightful little passionate dance will be performed in a new orchestration by Michael Turner, the Bloomsbury Chamber Orchestra’s Music Director.
A second piece of music by Falla ends the first half of the concert. His ballet/pantomime “Love, the Magician” absolutely buzzes with the sounds and atmosphere of Spain. There are fast dance rhythms that spark with passion and fire while moments of calm repose seem to be bathed in hot Mediterranean sunshine. The orchestra is joined by Mezzo-Soprano Leonora Dawson-Bowling in this story of forced-marriage, death, adultery, ghostly apparitions and love.
The last of the three composers has already put in a bit-part appearance. Maurice Ravel wrote widely for both piano and orchestra, with many of his piano works being arranged for the larger forces. Of his set of five piano pieces “Mirroirs”, Ravel orchestrated two. The remaining pieces have received a variety of orchestrations including “La Vallees des Cloches” which is performed in this concert in a new orchestration by Michael Turner. As the title suggests, we hear a valley filled with the sounds of bells, conjured from a variety of instruments, some already bell-like, others less so.
The concert concludes with Ravel’s ballet, “Mother Goose”. The composer originally wrote five pieces for piano duet which he then orchestrated. He then took this orchestration and enlarged it into a 25-minute ballet. The piece is full of fantasy, childish playfulness, beauties and ogres within which Ravel creates some glorious sounds through his exemplary use of the orchestra.
The Bloomsbury Chamber Orchestra’s spring concert takes place at 7pm on Saturday 7 March 2020 at the church of St-Mary-at-Hill, Eastcheap. Come a long for a sensory experience like few others.
