It was a French extravaganza for the National Symphony Orchestra's first concert of the New Year: four works by Gabriel Fauré, who died a hundred years ago, and a symphony by Bizet, with French conductor Jean-Luc Tingaud conducting. For the choral works in tonight’s performance the National Symphony Chorus was joined by the youthful voices of Cór na nÓg (singers aged 9 to 14) and Cór Linn (singers aged 14-19).
Beginning and ending the concert with choral works made for a fascinating programme, as did combining the extremely renowned Requiem with lesser known Fauré works and Bizet’s popular Symphony in C major.
The soft opening of Fauré’s Les Djinns, with its staccato voices and hushed strings, took a little time to gel together but the sudden fortissimo proclamation of “Dieu!” was arresting. Tingaud harnessed the crescendos and diminuendos of the combined choirs to good dramatic effect as the text depicted the terrors of the Jinn.
Principal Flute Catriona Ryan was the soloist in Fauré’s Fantaisie (orchestrated by Louis Aubert). She offered a dreamy, sensuous account of this piece, written for the Concours de Flûte at the Paris Conservatoire in 1898. In the Andante cantabile she was ever attentive to phrasing while in the Allegro she captured the mercurial changes of mood with rapidfire scales and nimble double-tonguing. Tingaud, conscious of the delicate sound of the flute, kept the forces of the NSO firmly in check and never overwhelmed the delicate tendrils of the flute’s melody.
Ryan played the Morceau de concours as an encore which Fauré had written for the same flute competition. I was struck how similar the first few bars of the piece sounded to Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 21. Accompanied by the gentle plucking of the harp, Ryan allowed her melody to soar, hover on the sustained notes before swooping gently down.
Bizet’s Symphony was composed when he was only 17 and one which he never heard performed in his lifetime. It illustrates his youthful mastery of orchestral colours and harmonic composition; it possesses a good deal of the effervescent humour and busyness of Mozart too. Tingaud made the NSO fizz with energy in the opening movement and Scherzo. In the Andante, the oboe impressed with its sinuous melody as it trickled down chromatically while later the violins were enchanting with their wispy sostenuto. The finale was an exciting moto perpetuo for the strings that brought the first half to a very satisfactory end.
Fauré’s Requiem is a mystical work and always a treat to hear it. There were some issues with balance and co-ordination between the choirs and orchestra. The fresh young voices of Cór na nÓg and Cór Linn did remarkably well and brought an innocence (for example In Paradisum) that was most fitting. Baritone Benjamin Russell was exceptional, projecting easily in the quiet moments as well as the loud, the silky lyricism of his voice nothing short of captivating. Zoë Moore possessed a sweet voice as she gave a serene if hushed rendition of the Pie Jesu. The Libera me was brilliantly moving as it implores to be spared from eternal death. Special mention goes to organist Fergal Caulfield who provided a binding presence throughout Fauré's masterpiece.
