Louise Farrenc, Berlioz, Poulenc
Bath Festival Orchestra
Peter Manning conductor, Dana Zemtsov viola
Queen Elizabeth Hall, 14 January 2024

Louise Farrenc: Overture No.1 in E minor
Berlioz: Harold en Italie
Poulenc: Sinfonietta

My usual reviewing is in early music, so it was a surprise to be invited to review a concert of Louise Ferrenc, Berlioz and Poulenc by the Bath Festival Orchestra. The orchestra and some of the music were not familiar to me, so it was a chance to broaden my knowledge of the repertoire and our regional orchestras. And I’m glad I did. It was a well-planned and performed all-French programme contrasting two compositions from the same year of 1834 with a later contribution from 1947.

Louise Farrenc (née Jeanne-Louise Dumont, 1804-1875) started her musical life at age 15 with lessons with a Paris Conservatoire teacher. This had to be done privately as women were not allowed to study at the Conservatoire. She spent around 20 years as a concert pianist while running Éditions Farrenc, a successful music publishing house. She then became Professor of Piano at the Paris Conservatoire, a role she held for 31 years. She was the first female professor at the Conservatoire (where she campaigned for equal pay) and the only female with a permanent professorship there for the entire 19th century. Although admired by composers such as Berlioz, her music was not in keeping with the style of Parisian music of the time and was little heard then, and today.

This Overture was composed in 1834 during her concert career, one of an unpublished pair. Although not connected to any opera or with any known narrative, it has all the makings of an opera overture – or, indeed, a mini-opera in its own right. The three contrasting moods from differing instrumental groups introduced at the start interact with each other throughout the nine minutes. A grand opening statement gives way to a woodwind passage before a gentle melody takes over, ultimately leading to a dramatic final climax. Berlioz admired her music, commenting on this Overture that it was ‘Well written and orchestrated’. I agree.

The headline work was Berlioz’s Harold en Italie, with the impressive viola soloist Dana Zemtsov. It’s a curious piece with a rhapsodic, almost anarchic, structure and a wide range of evocative timbres and moods, none of which seemed to have much to do with the piece’s inspiration, Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. However, it does reflect a character (represented by the solo viola) who wanders Italy trying to find himself and yearning for this, that, and the other. Harold starts in the mountains, watches a parade of pilgrims, serenades a lost love before joining an orgy of the bandits. The solo viola player has a theatrical role, the score suggesting various stage positions. Dana Zemtsov (pictured) started to the side of the orchestra before moving centre stage for an evocative duet with the harp – a delightful contrast to the gloomy Jaws-like introduction. After another side stage spell, she finished towards the rear of the orchestra. She took on the role of Harold with evident relish, clearly enjoying herself and the music and responding brilliantly to the orchestra. It was an inspiring performance, helped by an engaging stage presence.

For me, the highlight of Berlios’s music was the extraordinary timbres that he calls for, all dealt with exquisitely by the Bath Festival Orchestra. One of the loveliest was an extraordinary sequence where the vola plays an extended sequence of gentle arpeggios with a slightly metallic sound against syncopated orchestral colours. Another was the long-held slow solo viola held as a high drone towards the end. Several members of the orchestra made significant contributions, including Alec Marmon, cor anglais, Amy Ronson and Libby Foxley, cornets, Alis Huws, harp, Ruby Orlowska, trumpet, Polly Bartlett, oboe, Francisco Gomez Ruiz, horn, and Méline Le Calvez, clarinet.

After the interval came another fascinating French composer, Francis Poulenc with his 1947 Sinfonietta, a commission from the BBC for the first anniversary of their Third Programme. A four-movement almost symphonic piece, it displayed many similar musical structures with the Berlioz, not least in its seemingly wayward construction of a series of short sections that were set against each other, rather than growing out from each other. With several references to his famous Organ Concerto dating from around ten years earlier, Poulenc’s distinctive style was very evident. He also included recycled passages from a recently composed string quartet that he had emphatically discarded into a Paris sewer. As with the two other pieces, the range of orchestral colours and textures was a feature of the music.

The Bath Festival Orchestra was founded in 1959 by Yehudi Menuhin, the then Artistic Director of the Bath Festival. It last until

The Bath Festival Orchestra was founded in 1959 by Yehudi Menuhin, the then Artistic Director of the Bath Festival. It lasted until 1969 when Menuhin, but was refounded in 2020 by conductor Peter Manning. Drawing on musicians in the early stages of their careers, it focuses on educational outreach alongside it role with the Bath Festival. It was refreshing to see an orchestra that was predominantly female, including all the string section leaders and most of the principal desks. I am not sure how much time they had to rehearse, but they played with an excellent sense of consort on the relatively deep stage of the QEH. Peter Manning’s ebullient direction was respectful to the music, keeping the sometimes wayward musical textures of the Berlioz and Poulenc flowing.