Jean-Samuel Bez & Gina Kruger, Chichester Cathedral, Mar 4
Maurice Ravel would have been 150 if he’d lived until Friday. Jean-Samuel Bez and Gina Kruger are marking the occasion but not with the pacific Pavane or the incessant dance he wrote for Torvill and Dean. Les Deux Mélodies Hébraïques are sombre and haunting, Kaddish sorrowing with Gina the sparest of accompanists as it evokes the ancient religion, still subdued in L’énigme éternelle until the long last violin note. Jean-Samuel is a versatile musician but he might not always cast a spell like that.
The Violin Sonata of Mel Bonis begins with a discursive, Romantic Moderato. The rest of the tempo markings weren’t always easy to agree with, the Lento not being all that slow and the form of the composition escaped me, the Presto was rich and warm but the Con Moto finale was convincingly spirited. It might have been a case of the music sounding better than it was but I’d have to try again to say I fully ‘appreciated’ it beyond its concatenation of musical ideas. There is, I think, an opportunity to try again in Portsmouth Cathedral on Thursday as this tour progresses.
Back with Ravel, the Violin Sonata no. 1 was spacious, en plein air and pastoral with both musicians relishing its descriptive qualities. One might have thought of a lark ascending to float on currents of summer updraft. It was quite captivating and especially useful to hear further aspects of Ravel, of which there are a few.
A spellbinding lunchtime of musical storytelling, with another chance to experience it in Portsmouth Cathedral this Thursday.
