Composer Portrait – André Jolivet
Last night I attended a concert by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Pascal Rophé, highlighting the work of French composer, André Jolivet (1905-74). The concert was preceded by a talk by the composer’s daughter, Christine Jolivet-Erlih, on the composers life, friends and influences. This talk and the concert is to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 at a later date.
The first piece of music was Claude Debussy’s Nocturnes. Jolivet was influenced by Debussy’s work when he was young. The Nocturnes are for full orchestra, with three movements, Nuages, Fêtes and Sirèns. The first movement contains a flute solo in the middle, which brightens an otherwise slow movement. The second movement uses the full orchestra, with brass and timpani taking a big role. The final movement is about mermaids and featured a female choir from the Welsh College of Music and Drama singing in harmony with the orchestra a wordless tune (representative of mermaids wailing).
The second piece was Jolivet’s Cello Concerto No 2. Written in 1966 for cello and a string orchestra, this was a most enjoyable cello concerto, reminiscent of some of Shostakovitch’s work for cello. Christine Jolivet-Erlih had explained before that her father had known Shostakovich and visited him in the Soviet Union. Written in three movements, but one continuous piece of music, this included a long passage for solo cellist, that looked difficult to play. Jolivet was a cellist, so he would have known the instrument well. The cellist for this performance was Marc Coppey.
Following the interval, Jolivet’s Bassoon Concerto, written in 1954 was performed. The soloist was Jasoslaw Augustyniak. This piece was written for string orchestra, harp and piano. Written in four movements, again without a break, this was a most enjoyable performance. It is not often you see the bassoon close up, as it is generally towards the back of the orchestra, so it was interesting to see the soloists technique on this instrument. It also had interesting harmonic properties, with the piano and harp joining the strings and bassoon.
The final piece was Jolivet’s Symphony No. 3. This was a symphony with plenty of dissonance and loud dynamics. The full orchestra is used in this symphony, with plenty of interesting percussion, brass fanfares and parts for flute, oboe and all the strings. The final coda ended the night with a dramatic flourish as all the elements come together for the finish.
The three pieces by Jolivet were all very different and showcase the versatility of the French composer. I had not heard his music before last night but will look out for it in the future.
Minimalism (Continued)
Philip Glass – Glassworks (1981). Glass wrote this piece of music in six parts, each part is different, but with a similar minimalist structure. Repeating patterns, harmony and tonal. The second part has the most striking contrast to the other minimalist works I have heard. Here Glass uses dissonance, which does not happen in the other parts of this work, and is not apparent in the pieces by Reich or Riley.
New Complexity
Brian Ferneyhough – Mnemosyne (1986). The bass flute and the taped music play a dissonant harmony together. This was an interesting sound, the timbre of the bass flute dominating the work.
Brian Ferneyhough – Carceri d’Intenzione. Could only find on Spotify and other sources no II of the series which featured flute. The flute part, played by Roberto Fabriciani on the recording I heard, reached high notes. The other instrument was possibly a viola.
Brian Ferneyhough – Exordium (2008). This string Quartet is made up of about 40 short fragments. Featuring all aspects of string playing. Changing dynamics and tempo throughout was one feature of this piece. I could only find a version of this on YouTube, so not sure if it is complete (8:46). By the Arditti Quartet.
Choral Music/Tonality
John Rutter – Shepherd’s Pipe Carol. Listened to version by Rutter’s own Cambridge Singers. Harmony of voice parts with high pitch instrumental parts. Male and Female voices.