United Kingdom Barraine, Ohana, Ravel, Debussy: Nicholas Hodges (pianist), Upper Voices of the RCS Chamber Choir (director: Andrew Nunn), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Ilan Volkov (conductor). City Halls, Glasgow, 11.12.2025. (GT)
Elsa Barraine – Symphony No.2
Maurice Ohana – Piano Concerto
Ravel – Valses nobles et sentimentales
Debussy – Nocturnes
A rewarding feature of this orchestra’s programming is the regular introduction to audiences in Scotland of composers that most have never heard of, let alone listened to. This particularly relates to the first half of this concert, with the second half comprising well-known favourites to audiences worldwide. Ilan Volkov is a musician who delights in the forgotten and neglected areas of world music. He turned many heads when the Israeli was the chief conductor here in Glasgow, and now, as Creative Partner, he introduced two quite unknown names on this evening.
The name of the French composer Elsa Barraine (1910-1999) was completely unknown to me; however, I can say the same for several women composers whose works have emerged from the archives in recent years. The names of Ruth Gibbs, Florence Price, Louise Farrenc, and Vitêzslava Kaprálová have won new listeners in recent years, adding to the wide number of women composers such as Clara Schumann, Hildegard of Bingen, and Barbara Strozzi.
Based on this performance, Elsa Barraine deserves to be heard widely for her brilliant invention and colourful orchestration. Barraine’s Second Symphony was written in 1938 on the eve of the Second World War, when she, as a young Jewish woman, was threatened by genocide and by war. During the occupation, Barraine was active in the resistance movement together with other composers and musicians. As she said years later, ‘In ‘38, we knew there would be a war; you would have to be crazy not to notice.’ Premiered by the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française, the work was subtitled ‘Voina’ or war in Russian.
The opening bars in the Allegro vivace announced powerful themes on the brass and the woodwind, which were supported by colourfully nuanced strings. The symphony is full of sharply distinct rhythms and is interrupted by disturbing harmonies with brief outbursts on the percussion. The mood that is created is disturbing, highlighted by the thuds on the snare drum. The second movement, March funèbre, opened on the low brass, with the mood of tragedy evinced on the violins and woodwind, and portraying an uneasy atmosphere, while the Finale introduced dance-like rhythms offering a distinct transformation to the opening movements, and rising to a triumphant and optimistic climax on the brass.
This symphony is well orchestrated and has interestingly developed ideas. It is a pity that few performances took place after the 1938 Paris premiere, and despite radio broadcasts, it was not heard again after the war and fell into neglect; thankfully, it has been rediscovered and recorded.
The Piano Concerto by Maurice Ohana (1913-1992) comes from a different school than the Barraine symphony. Composed in 1980-81, as Ohana writes, ‘All my music is monodic [made up of a single melodic line] and that which is added is just a trail or shadow – the soul of it is monodic.’ Hodges opened with a line of thickened monodies on the piano before the orchestra joined in with the soloist Nicholas Hodges. The score alternated with the intense emotions associated with Andalusian cante jondo, in particular the saeta. The mood was reflective and contemplative before the piano introduced wild percussive rhythms. In the middle section, the piano returned to the opening monody with a slow sequence called by Flamengo musicians sonido negro, creating a special magic associated with the satanic duende evoked by the Spanish poet Lorca. This preluded the culmination of a violent percussive toccata of great power by the pianist.
The contrast between the two parts of the programme was highlighted by the lightness and atmospheric optimism of Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales. The solemnity of the two previous pieces quickly disappeared as the breezy lightness and richly embroidered orchestral colours brought us into a world of grace and magical abandonment – as if all the problems of the twentieth century were forgotten. The flute performances by Matthew Higham were a highlight, matched by the clarinet of Yann Ghiro and the oboe of Christopher Vettraino. The horn solo by Jake Parker was also memorable as it evinced the magical harmonies. Finally, the sequence of eight waltzes closed on the brass as the themes of the preceding ones reappeared in a ghostly echo, as if a distant memory rather than triumphantly.
In the Debussy Nocturnes, the cor anglais of Vettraino opened a wistful sequence with a passage that created quite an atmospheric before the rise in tension from the clarinets heard against the sharp rhythms on the low strings. There was notably fine playing again from Higham on his flute, before a quiet spell of beautiful romanticism. The mood was interrupted in ‘Fètes’ by the bright clarinets, heralding a build in tension with the harp and the muted trumpets. In ‘Sirens’, the chorus’s soft voices and the cor anglais created an atmospheric mood, with magical harmonies from the clarinets and the strings.
This was often a revelatory concert in blending two quite different trends in twentieth-century French music, led by the outstanding direction of Ilan Volkov, making this an evening of discovery and reacquaintance with well-known favourites.
Gregor Tassie