Aigues-Mortes in the Camargue region of southern France is particularly known for two things: its pink salt marshes, coloured by micro-organisms of a variety of microscopic algae, which are devoted to the production of quality sea salt, and the thirteenth-century towers and ramparts which surround much of the town. The town and its ramparts were commissioned by Louis IX in 1248 to establish a port on the Mediterranean and it is connected to the sea by a series of canals and lagoons.Apart from the sea salt, much of the town’s income today derives from tourism.
The Tower of Constance and the ramparts of Aigues-Mortes
An evening of Gustav Mahler by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Mikko Franck opened with the song cycle ‘Kindertotenlieder’ before continuing in the second half to what was intended to be the main event, Symphony no. 4.
However, whilst the symphony would be well performed, ‘Kindertotenlieder’ was, for me, always going to be the main event. Not only is it a collection of songs that I love to listen to, despite the sad subject matter, but it was being sung by my favourite French mezzo-soprano, Marianne Crebassa.
Marianne Crebassa (photograph Simon Fowler)
Whilst ‘Songs on the Death of Children’ is obviously not the most cheerful of subjects to listen to, Marianne Crebassa’s voice is perfectly suited to conveying the sorrow of the words in an extremely thoughtful way. It was a most beautiful interpretation.
Symphony no. 4 in G major was composed between 1899 and 1900, although the song for soprano in the fourth movement dates from 1892. The Fourth is the last of Mahler’s three so-called ‘Wunderhorn’ symphonies, which incorporate themes originating in his ‘Des Knaben Wunderhorn’ song cycle.
Mikko Franck (photograph Christophe Abramowitz)
The first movement is quite jolly, with its sleigh bell motif and the woodwinds and brass were particularly impressive. Impressive playing continued in the second movement from the violins especially and thoughts were that this could be a particularly fine Fourth Symphony. However, the slow third movement, whilst played well, failed to keep the same level of attention. The fourth movement belongs to the soprano, in this case Melody Louledjian, but whilst she sang beautifully, in some sections her voice didn’t seem to have the power to effectively reach the front row of the balcony where I was sitting. So in all, a fine performance, but not the best Mahler 4 I have ever heard.
Nevertheless, overall it was a great evening, especially because I got to hear the wonderful Marianne Crebassa again.
Gustav Mahler: ‘Kindertotenlieder’; Gustav Mahler ‘Symphony no. 4 in G major’.
Unfortunately this was not the concert I had bought tickets for. The original plan was for a performance of Ravel’s complete music for ‘Daphnis et Chloé’ by Les Siecles under François-Xavier Roth, which I was particularly looking forward to. However, the enforced absence of Roth meant a change in programme as well as a change in conductor. French conductor Louis Langrée took over the baton for a concert of works by French composers.
Louis Langrée
To begin, we were able to hear the world’s first performance of a work by Maurice Ravel. A strange occurance considering that he has been dead for 87 years, but in 2023 the Bibliothèque nationale de France acquired the manuscript of a short composition for mixed choir and orchestra based on a poem by Armand Silvestre entitled ‘Amants qui suivez le chemin’, probably composed between 1902 and 1905. It was delightfully performed, especially by the Radio France choir.
Radio France choir
Another short work followed, ‘Thème varié pour violin et orchestre’ by Charlotte Sohy, a composer I was not familiar with, even though she left a large number of compositions including piano pieces, trios, string quartets, songs, masses, a symphony and the lyrical drama ‘L’Esclave couronnée’. She sounds like someone I should find out more about; she also wrote plays and a novel and her musical compositions were frequently performed by Maurice Ravel and Gabriel Fauré, providing a link within tonight’s programme.
We were treated to the usual high quality of violin playing from Renaud Capuçon in both Sohy’s ‘Thème’ and the next work, Gabriel Fauré’s D minor ‘Concerto pour violin et orchestre’. Again it is a short work as only the first of two completed movements, the Allegro, has survived, although Fauré reused some of its themes in his later String Quartet.
Renaud Capuçon
The second half of the concert was a much brighter and livelier affair, with two works by Ravel superbly performed by Les Siecles. The first was ‘Ma Mère l’Oye’, based on fairy tales and originally written for children in 1910 as a piano duet, before being orchestrated the following year, the version we heard. Ravel would subsequently add additional pieces and interludes to transform it into a ballet. The musicians of Les Siècles use French instruments from the beginning of the twentieth century, so we were hearing the works in versions that Ravel would have been familiar with.
The earlier sections have plenty of room for the wind instruments to impress, with flute and piccolo solos, then clarinet and contrabassoon, before concluding with the impressionist ‘Le jardin féerique’ in which Sleeping Beauty, represented by the celesta, awakes to a wonderful crescendo.
The final piece was the highlight of the evening. Even though we didn’t get the promised complete ‘Daphis et Chloé’ ballet music, we did at least get the more-often performed ‘Suite no. 2’. It was a chance for Les Siècles to shine, and shine they did. Both the orchestra and the choir were superb, so much so that they were called back to play the final section all over again, much to the audience’s delight.
Montpellier, just inland from the Mediterranean Sea, is the prefecture of the department of Hérault. It is a vibrant university city with a population of 300,000 and is home to the annual Festival de Radio France, the reason for my visit.
The University of Montpellier, established in 1220, is one of the world’s oldest and has the oldest medical school still in operation. Notable alumni of the university include Petrarch, Nostradamus and François Rabelais.
University of Montpellier Faculty of Medicine
The Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Montpellier was originally the church of the monastery of Saint-Benoît, which was founded in 1364. The building was elevated to the status of cathedral in 1536.
The annual visit to the Issigiac International Music Academy was rewarded with a concert of works from the Romantic period by Beethoven, Stanford and Brahms by the Dante Quartet. The Dante Quartet, one of the UKs finest, was founded in 1995 and has undergone several changes in personnel over the years but currently has Zoe Beyers on first violin, Ian Watson on second violin, Carol Ella on viola and Richard Jenkinson on cello.
Dante Quartet
Beethoven’s late quartets are said to be the ultimate examples of string quartet music and they don’t come any later than String Quartet no. 16 in F major, which was his last completed and not performed until after his death. The opening Allegretto has an enjoyable light-hearted, almost Haydnesque, quality. Whilst the second movement, in all but name a scherzo, has the rhythms of the four parts often seemingly in conflict, the third, slow movement is more poignant. However, all is resolved in the more exuberant final movement which finishes on a happier note. The complexities of the work were handled with great aplomb by the Dantes.
Charles Villiers Stanford’s Quartet no. 5 in B flat major was new to me. It was completed in 1907 and dedicated to the memory of his close friend, the violinist, Joseph Joachim, who had recently died. However, it is by no means a gloomy work, especially the opening Allegro moderato movement which is quite energetic with a joyful Irish lilt. Whilst the second and third movements have more feeling, the final Allegro moderato, which quotes a passage from a work by Joachim, completely dispels the previous plaintive mood.
The second half of the concert was a performance of the Brahms String Quartet no. 1 in C minor. Probably because of the dominance of the Beethoven String Quartets, Brahms was slow to publish his first, doing so in 1873, after, it is said, composing and destroying twenty such works.
The first movement is quite agitated and rhythmic, whilst the middle movements are more lyrical. The third movement in particular, described as an intermezzo rather than a scherzo, has a more relaxed pace. The final movement restores the more aggressive energy of the first before coming to a triumphant resolution.
Beethoven: String Quartet no. 16 in F major, opus 135; Stanford: String Quartet no. 5 in B flat major , opus 104; Brahms: String Quartet no. 1 in C minor, opus 51.
At the Halle aux Grains, Toulouse, for a concert of works from the later years of composers Richard Strauss and Anton Bruckner by the Orchester national du Capitole de Toulouse led by its new musical director, the Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski.
The concert opened with the cycle of ‘Four Last Songs’ by Richard Strauss. The songs, composed in 1948 when the composer was eighty-four, are Frühling’ (Spring), ‘September’, ‘Beim Schlafengehen’ (When Falling Asleep) and ‘Im Abendrot’ (At Sunset). After the composer’s death they were published by Strauss’s friend Ernst Roth, who gave them their title. They were performed beautifully by Israeli soprano Chen Reiss, who deservedly received several ovations.
Chen Reiss
The second half saw a tremendous performance of Bruckner’s Symphony no. 9 in D minor. It was the last symphony on which the composer worked and he dedicated it “to the beloved God.” The last movement was left incomplete at the time of his death in 1896 and tonight’s performance included only the three completed movements. (A fourth movement has been completed by a team of Bruckner experts over twenty years and has been recorded by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic.)
Even without the fourth movement it is a monumental symphony and it was played superbly by the orchestra. Of particular note were the brass sections and the lone timpanist who handled the climaxes wonderfully. The strings were also electric, especially in the scherzo. If this is a taste of the Toulouse orchestra’s future under Tarmo Peltokoski there is much to look forward to. I hope so as I have already booked several concerts for next season!
Richard Strauss: ‘Four Last Songs’; Anton Bruckner: ‘Symphony no. 9 in D minor’ WAB 109.
Musée de Cluny in Paris is the French Musée National du Moyen Age and has an impressive permanent collection as well as holding frequent temporary exhibitions. The current exhibition displays the range of artistic production from the reign of Charles VII, with paintings, sculptures, stained glass, tapestries and illuminated manuscripts. It also has a section devoted to the works of Jean Fouquet, one of the most renowned French artists of the fifteenth century.
Charles II came to the throne in 1422, a time of political instability, with the Hundred Years War continuing and the Armagnacs, supporters of the House of Valois, and the Burgundians fighting a civil war. However, by the end of his reign in 1461, the Hundred Years War was over (with the aid of Jeanne d’Arc), as were English claims to the French throne. The period also saw a change in artistic production, with a new style, influenced by both Flemish realism (‘ars nova’) and the Italian Renaissance, taking over from International Gothic.
Jean Fouquet ‘Charles VII’ (c.1450 – 55)
‘Canopy for throne of Charles VII’ (1450)
Maître de Dreux-Budé (André d’Ypres) ‘Crucifixion triptych’ central panel (c.1450)
‘Crucifixion triptych’ side panels. ‘Kiss of Judas’ (left) ‘Resurrection’ (right)
Berthélemy d’Eyck ‘Altarpiece of the Annunciation’ (1443 – 44)
‘Pietà de Tarascon’ (Provence, fifteenth century)
‘Chess Players’ (fifteenth century)
Master of Rohan ‘Grandes Heures de Rohan (1430 – 35)
Enguerrand Quarton ‘Missal of Jean des Martins’ (1466)
It was also an opportunity to see some of the remarkable exhibits that make up the museum’s permanent collection.
‘À mon seul désir’ (The Lady and the Unicorn tapestry) (c.1500)
‘Heads of Kings of Judah’ (west façade Notre-Dame cathedral) (thirteenth century)
Altar frontal from Basel Cathedral (first half eleventh century)
‘Virgin and Child’ (Paris,1240 – 50)
Angelo di Nalduccio, attrib. ‘Bust Reliquary of Saint Mabilia’ (c.1370 – 80)
‘Reliquary of Saint Thomas Becket’ (c.1190 – 1200)
On 15 April 1874, the first Impressionist exhibition opened in Paris, held at the former studio of the photographer Nadal. A group of artists led by Monet, Renoir, Degas, Morisot, Pissarro, Sisley and Cézanne, tired of rejection by the official Salon, decided to hold their own exhibition, free from what they saw as outdated Salon rules.
Later that month, journalist Louis Leroy wrote a mocking sketch in the satirical magazine ‘Le Charivari’ in which he called the paintings on display slapdash and superficial and creating no more than “impressions”, a term he lifted from the title of a painting by Claude Monet entitled ‘Impressions, Sunrise’ – the group had been given their name.
To mark the 150th anniversay of the first exhibition, Musée d’Orsay presented 130 paintings and works on paper from both the Impressionist exhibition and, by way of contrast, paintings from that year’s Salon.
Works from the 1874 Impressionist exhibition
Paul Cézanne’ Une moderne Olympia’(1873 – 74)
Edgar Degas ‘Répétition d’un ballet sur la scène’ (1874)
Berthe Morisot ‘Le berceau’ (1872)
Claude Monet ‘Coquelicots’ (1873)
Claude Monet ‘Impression, Soleil Levant’ (1873)
Claude Monet ‘Le déjeuner’ (1868 – 69)
Camille Pissarro ‘La Jardin de la Ville Pontoise’ (1874)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir ‘Danseuse’ (1874)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir ‘La Loge’ (1874)
Alfred Sisley ‘L’automne – Bords de la Seine pres Bougival’ (1873)
Works from the 1874 Salon
Jules Bastien-Lepage ‘Portrait du grand-père de l’artiste’ (1874)
Edouard Dantan ‘Moine sculptant un Christ en bois’ (1874)
Ferdinand Humbert ‘La Vierge, l’Enfant Jésus et saint Jean-Baptiste’ (c.1874)
Edouard Manet ‘Le Chemin de fer’ (1873)
Works from the 1877 Impressionist exhibition
Gustave Caillebotte ‘Peintres en bâtiment.’ (1877)
Claude Monet ‘La Gare Saint-Lazare’ (1877)
Claude Monet ‘Les Dindons’ (1877)
Auguste Renoir ‘Bal du moulin de la Galette’ (1876)
The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under conductor Mikko Franck have been performing a complete Sibelius symphony cycle on successive evenings at Maison de la Radio, Paris. This evening’s programme brought together the final three: symphonies 5, 6 and 7.
Jean Sibelius
The evening began with Symphony no. 5, possibly Sibelius’s best known. It was commissioned by the Finnish government in honour of the composer’s fiftieth birthday on 8 December 1915, which had been declared a national holiday. He wrote the original score from 1914 to 1915, revising it twice before it reached its final form in 1919.
Written in E-flat major, it is in three movements, each of which evoke the Nordic landscape. Whilst writing the symphony in 1915, Sibelius noted in his diary, “Today at ten to eleven I saw sixteen swans. One of my greatest experiences! Lord God, what beauty! They circled over me for a long time. Disappeared into the solar haze like a gleaming silver ribbon.” This inspired him to write what has become known as the ‘swan theme’ which forms the dramatic climax of the final movement. The orchestra performed it brilliantly under Finnish conductor Mikko Franck (like many other Finnish conductors, a pupil of Jorma Panula) who planned this series of concerts for his final year as the orchestra leader.
Perhaps it was the thrill of the performance of the fifth symphony that led to the sixth seeming slightly lacklustre in comparison. It is of course a much more subdued and less dramatic composition than the fifth with much quieter moments. Even Sibelius himself wrote of the sixth, “Whereas most other modern composers are engaged in manufacturing cocktails of every hue and description, I offer the public pure cold water.” Whilst it was an enjoyable performance, and certainly not ‘cold water’, I would have preferred a little more dynamism.
Mikko Franck et l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
However, with the final piece of the evening, Symphony no. 7, the orchestra were back on fire. Notable for being a single movement symphony, it is one of the composer’s most remarkable achievements. Despite its complexity, it was played with great energy (the trombone theme was especially wonderful) and it provided the perfect ending to the evening and to the entire cycle. Mikko Franck was deservedly called back for numerous ovations.
Jean Sibelius: Symphony no. 5 in E-flat major, opus 82; Symphony no. 6 in D minor, opus 104; Symphony no. 7 in C major, opus 105.
In 1930, Henri Matisse, then aged 61, met Albert Barnes, an American millionaire businessman and modern art collector who had set up the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania (the Foundation has since moved to Philadelphia). Barnes commissioned Matisse to paint a mural for the Foundation building, leaving the artist to decide on the subject.
Matisse chose dance, a subject he had often painted before, and, in 1931, he began work on a triptych which was to fit under three arches. However, he considered his first attempt to be too decorative and abandoned it. Now known as ‘La Danse inachevée’ (‘The Unfinished Dance’), this work is exhibited in the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, as is Matisse’s second attempt, known as ‘La Danse de Paris’. Although this time he completed the project a problem with the dimensions meant that it was unsuitable for its intended location.
Matisse decided to produce a third version and this was finally installed at the Barnes Foundation In April 1933. ‘La Danse inachevée’ was only discovered in Matisse’s studio in Nice, in 1990.
Henri Matisse ‘Danse inachevée’ (1931)
Henri Matisse ‘La Danse de Paris’ (1931 – 33)
Henri Matisse ‘La Danse’ (Barnes Foundation,1933)
The Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris is housed in the Art Deco Palais de Tokyo on Avenue de Président Wilson in the sixteenth arrondissement. As well as Matisse’s two Dance triptychs, its holds extremely impressive permanent collections of Modern and Contemporary paintings and works on paper – a total of 15,000 works from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is particularly rich in the works of Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Raoul Dufy and Giorgio de Chirico.
The Palais de Tokyo seen from the Seine
Raoul Dufy was commissioned to paint huge frescoes for the curved wall of the entrance to the Pavillon de la Lumière et de l’Électricité at the 1937 International Exposition in Paris. His massive work entitled ‘La Fée Électricité’ (‘The Electricity Fairy’) depicts scientists and inventors involved in the history of electricity and its applications. The fresco was donated to the Musée d’Art Moderne by Électricité de France in 1964.
Raoul Dufy ‘La Fée Electricité’ (1937)
Robert and Sonia Delaunay’s series of large paintings entitled ‘Rhythms’ was created in 1938 to decorate the sculpture gallery at the Salon des Tuileries in Paris.
Robert and Sonia Delaunay ‘Rhythms’ (1938)
Robert Delaunay ‘L’Equipe de Cardiff’ (1912 – 13)
Robert Delaunay ‘Tour Eiffel’ (1926)
Pablo Picasso painted ‘Evocation (L’Enterrement de Casagemas)’ as a tribute to his friend and fellow art student Carlos Casagemas, who had committed suicide in Paris in 1901 after a failed love affair. Picasso was deeply affected by the death of his friend and the painting depicts the ascension of Casagemas’s soul.
Pablo Picasso ‘Evocation (L’Enterrement de Casagemas)’ (c.1901)
Pablo Picasso ‘Le vieux marc’ (c.1914)
Georges Braque ‘Nature morte à la pipe’ (1914)
Natalia Goncharova ‘Femme russe’ (c.1909)
Fernand Léger ‘Les discs’ (1918)
Amedeo Modigliani ‘Femme aux yeux bleus’ (c.1918)
Chaim Soutine ‘Torse au fond bleu’ (c.1928)
Giorgio de Chirico ‘Offerta a Giove (Offrande à Jupiter)’ (1971)
The Diary of One Who Disappeared 