United Kingdom Berlioz, Ortiz: Pacho Flores (trumpet); Philharmonia Orchestra / Rafael Payare (conductor). Royal Competition Corridor, London, 27.11.2025. (CC)
Berlioz – Le carnaval romain Overture (1843); Symphonie fantastique (1830)
Ortiz – Trumpet Concerto, ‘Altar de Bronce’ (2022, London premiere)
Rafael Payare is an thrilling conductor who is aware of precisely which repertoire to work with: Berlioz fits his temperament to a tee, and it was the certainly that composer’s works that linger on within the reminiscence.
The Berlioz potion of the programme echoes Payare’s latest launch on Pentatone of these two works, however with the Orchestre Symphonique de Monréal. The Roman Carnival Overture is traditional, after all, and is intimately linked to the opera Benvenuto Cellini (the stunning cor anglais theme, so tenderly performed right here by Rebecca Kozam, comes from the aria, ‘Õ Teresa, vous que j’aime plus que ma vie’.
Payare carried out each Berlioz items by reminiscence, and with a whole information of the rating. His conducing is definitely concerned, however all the time 100% directed on the orchestra. Curiously, he extracted a colder sound from the Philharmonia, maybe suited to Berlioz’s scoring. The violas particularly shone (and, fairly rightly, he requested them to face to obtain applause on the finish together with Kozam). Berlioz’s counterpoint emerged notably clearly, and the composer’s rhythmic trickery performed out effectively. Gestures (the woodwind scales previous to the principle theme of the quick part) have been excellent, and the way creamy the trombones in direction of the tip. A superb studying.
As was that of the Symphonie fantasique. Payare’s potential to X-ray a rating got here to the fore right here, element upon element revealed, the transition from the Largo (‘Rêveries) to the Allegro (‘Passions’) completely excellent, The violins injected actual urgency to their traces. This marriage of impact with construction was the important thing to the efficiency’s success; Berlioz’s writing (these snaking bassoon traces!) ever maintained its sense of ahead narration, proper to the superbly balanced chords of the primary motion’s shut.
Good not solely to have the cornet half within the ‘Un bal,’ however to have the participant (Neil Brough) spatially separated from his colleagues (standing on the opposite facet of the stage). A contact extra animated than on Payare’s latest recording, the tempo felt supreme and (not for the final time on this efficiency) it was the solo clarinet who shone from the woodwind solos (Maura Marinucci). The opposite woodwind standout was Kozam once more, her baleful music ever poignant (and completely managed). The issue right here was the off-stage oboe, too distanced (at one level, Berlioz does introduce different devices whereas the 2 are dialoguing, and there the oboe was all however misplaced; it’s completely judged on the recording). However the unfolding of this motion was distinctive, unrushed, the proper tempo, with a lot affectionate element on the journey: correct drama on the string tremolos, and clarinet and pizzicato sings heard at the least pppp.
With this sort of color sensitivity, it’s no shock that the consequences of the march to the scaffold (‘Marche au supplice’) have been pronounced: rasping stopped horns, for instance. Payare appeared intent on bringing out the rating’s modernity, one thing carried by means of to the Witches’ Sabbath finale, enhanced by the brilliant string tone up excessive and a positively manic E-flat clarinet (Jennifer McLaren). Brass interjections have been as one unit; the bassoons (led by Robin O’Neill) have been virtuosic; a powerful efficiency.
This was the London premiere of Gabriela Ortiz’s Trumpet Concerto, ‘Altar de Bronce’ that includes one of many best trumpeters of our time, Pacho Flores (whose efficiency of D’Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano with Payare (with the OSM this time, in Montréal’s Olympic Park) was unforgettable (overview right here). Right here on the Royal Competition Corridor, Flores entered carrying three trumpets, with Payare carrying the fourth for him; this 20 minute-plus work was clearly to be a virtuoso affair, and so it was. This Philharmonia fee follows on from Ortiz’s Violin Concerto, ‘Altar de cuerda’, introduced in London by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel on the Barbican in June final 12 months (overview right here). I used to be lower than enthusiastic concerning the piece (describing it as a ‘a meandering journey’); I’m even much less so about this 20-minute string of gestures.
Any brass participant will enjoy Flores’s mastery, his command of all points of his craft, together with vary, and the proper articulation of the opening fanfare (taken from Ortiz’s 2021 Tin-Tan-Fanfarria y Mambo) in opposition to glittering, shimmering sounds from the orchestra. Flores’s tuning is ideal, and somewhat little bit of air to his sound provides expressivity to the quieter moments. Dialogues between solo trumpet and orchestral trumpets are pretty frequent and efficient, the trumpet ripieno typically utilized in echo (maybe this might have been seen as a pre-echo for the cornet/trumpet separation within the Berlioz!). Flores’s heat of tone on the lower-pitched trumpets was spectacular. A cadenza consists of orchestral interjections; percussion have a sheaf of issues to maintain them occupied. And there’s a lot of enjoyable to the ultimate phases (which have been composed within the spirit of Latin music, at Flores’s request). However the music is completely vacuous, a succession of rhythm and color, and little else. Paradoxically, Flores’s encore, his personal waltz for trumpet and orchestra, Morocota, far eclipsed the Ortiz, its deliberate nostalgia fantastically touching.
The Philharmonia progamme booklet is free, however comes with a shedload of caveats: Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture was not written in 1901 (Berlioz died in 1869), and whereas the composition date for the Symphonie fantasique is appropriate, Berlioz’s personal dates appear to have shifted between the Overture (that are additionally appropriate, 1803-69) and the symphony, for which apparently Hector lived from 1835-1921; bizarrely, if that have been true, he may have written the overture in 1901! The misguided beginning and loss of life dates are literally these of Camille Saint-Saëns. To not point out, it might have been fascinating to search out out what Berlioz wrote in the course of the Expressionist interval … oh, sure, and the Ortiz was composed in 2022, not, because the booklet suggests, 2025. No marvel there was a spoken introduction (by percussionist Tom Edwards).
Rafael Payare’s star stays within the ascendent, and he clearly has a superb rapport with the Philharmonia. He may even be seen as a breath of contemporary air – I hope there’s extra to return.
Colin Clarke
Featured Picture: Rafael Payare © J Henry Truthful
