Presenting an all-French orchestral program is probably as safe a bet as any on those nights when Ravinia seems more like an oversized sauna bath than a music festival. Ravinia Park experienced such a night on Saturday, but there was enough variety in James Levine`s all-Gallic concert with the Chicago Symphony to divert attention from the becalmed air oppressing pavilion and picnickers alike.
The most impressive of the evening`s discoveries was Jean-Yves Thibaudet, soloist in the Ravel G-Major Piano Concerto. We knew the young French pianist from his recital and chamber music appearances downtown, but this was his CSO/ Ravinia debut, and he made it an occasion to remember. Thibaudet absorbed the Ravel style virtually at the source, having studied with a pupil of Marguerite Long, who gave the premiere of the concerto. It wasn`t surprising, then, that his reading had such wit and panache.
So many pianists treat the Ravel as a kind of fluffy throwaway; it`s to Thibaudet`s credit that he approached it like the charming, sophisticated and utterly French creation it is. Few interpreters combine so crisp and refined a pianistic command with so complete an understanding of the music`s jazzy insouciance. The cheeky brilliance of the outer movements was wonderfully set off by the tendresse of his Adagio, which moved with the unhurried grace of Erik Satie`s gymnopedies. Let`s hear more of Thibaudet.
Levine and the orchestra were the most giving of partners: Observe the wicked trumpet smear in the big tutti of the first movement.
Many listeners took the Ravel as their reward for sitting through the one ”new” work of the evening, Olivier Messiaen`s ”Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorem” (1964). Messiaen is the great mystic-ecstatic of French modernism. You either love or hate his music; there is no middle ground.
Heavily imbued with the composer`s typical Roman Catholic mysticism and symbology, ”Et expecto” is scored for a large contingent of woodwinds, brass and percussion, making it (in the composer`s view) suitable for performance in vast spaces, including the open air of Ravinia Park.
Its pungent dissonances pierced the humid air, punctuated by pregnant silences and the metallic clangor of massed tam-tams, cow bells, tubular bells and gongs. Roughly 25 minutes long, ”Et expecto” is not easy listening for an audience unfamiliar with Messiaen`s static, ritualized idiom. But it is important music-music worth getting to know.
Levine went for dramatic impact rather than attempting to clarify the score`s inner workings in a Boulez-like manner, and the CSO players gave him what he asked for. One must commend Levine for daring to shake up the summer programming formula in such a manner. One vociferous pavilion listener made his feelings known, but otherwise the audience reaction seemed moderately favorable.
Atmospheric accounts of the Royal Hunt and Storm, from Berlioz`s ”Les Troyens,” and Debussy`s ”La Mer” completed the program. Levine`s tempos for parts of ”La Mer” were comparatively slow, conjuring a hot noonday sun beating down on still waters. Big surges of color and delicate sprays of sound sometimes turned coarse at the climaxes.
