Part of the Festival Ravel in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, this was a fascinating concert with a theme of orchestrations. Parts of Robert Schumann’s solo piano work ‘Carnaval’ were orchestrated by Maurice Ravel; Ravel’s own ‘Sonata for Violin no. 2’ was orchestrated by Yan Maresz; with the main work on the programme being Ravel’s orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’.

Schumann wrote ‘Carnaval’ in 1834-1835 in Leipzig as a suite of 21 short pieces for piano representing masked revelers at a carnival festival. In 1914 Nijinsky asked Ravel to orchestrate the suite for the Ballets Russes but the project was aborted and only four movements survive. Although the surviving excerpts make a short work they use an imaginative rich colour palette and it provided a lively start to the evening.

Yan Maresz was commissioned by violinist Renaud Capuçon in 2016 to orchestrate Ravel’s second violin sonata The violin part is almost identical to the original piece whilst the piano part has been orchestrated very much in Ravel’s own style. The soloist for this performance was the excellent German violinist Veronika Eberle who played beautifully and with great sensitivity.

Veronika Eberle (photo.© Louie Thain)

The highlight of the concert was Ravel’s orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’, one of my favourite works to hear live. The original work was composed in 1874 as a piano suite in ten movements with a recurring Promenade theme. Mussorgsky wrote it in memory of his friend the artist Viktor Hartmann who had died suddenly the year before, aged only 39. The movements that make up the work correspond to pictures painted by Hartmann, with the Promenade representing the walk between them. It has been orchestrated several times but it is Ravel’s, from 1922, that is best known and most often performed and recorded.

It was an excellent performance by the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine under the direction of Joseph Swensen. The brass and percussion were particularly impressive, especially in the opening Promenade and the majestic final movement, ‘The Great Gate of Kyiv’ with its triumphant finale. It brought to an end a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Viktor Hartmann ‘Plan for a city gate in Kiev’ (1869)