Queensland Symphony Orchestra | Franck and Ravel
18 October, 2025, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane, QLD
Conductor: Lionel Bringuier
Soloist: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
This Maestro concert transported QSO subscribers to France as the conductor, Lionel Bringuier and concert pianist, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and repertoire were all French and yet the program wasn’t a casual stroll by the river Seine on a balmy day but presented three starkly different masterpieces which included Cesar Franck’s Symphony in D Minor notable for its dark themes and theatrical menace.
The delivery of Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice had rewarding detail, an airy spaciousness and judicious pacing. Bringuier’s brinkmanship captured the playful mischief, the underlying tension and the colourful sonic imagery in this programmatic music. It’s an anthem for our extraordinary times because the work inspired by Goethe’s poem Der Zauberlehrling stresses how humankind should not engineer more than it can control and fully comprehend. The work’s immense popularity towered over Dukas’ compositional legacy much to his irritation.
Soloist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s affability and charisma charmed the audience as soon as he came on stage and bowed. Positioning himself on the piano stool he created a hungry anticipation for Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. His poetic and radiant tone in lyrical passages and the piano’s voluminous resonance filled the concert hall during robust reaches and thrilled the crowd.
Bavouzet knows how to create that special silence that can be cut with a knife by incrementally paring back the volume to a light and feathery tone. It was rewarding to observe how much the orchestral players admired the soloist’s artistry.
To be critical sometimes the orchestra could had had more presence because the instrumental textures seemed thin and dessicated. That’s not to say there weren’t stunning solos sprinkled through the generally impressive performance including the Cor Anglaise played by Vivienne Brook towards the end of the second movement. The jazzy-infusions and spicy harmonies were well explored by soloist and ensemble.
A special moment in these maestro concerts has to be the soloist’s encores. Having slayed the crowd with his concerto powers, Bavouzet rocked Ravel’s Prelude and Toccata.
Franck’s Symphony is a tough assignment because it is so insistently melodramatic and it’s tricky for a conductor to sustain the excesses of emotional momentum and find contrasting moments of repose. Bringuier did a good job and the QSO invested a loving fervour in the music’s intense narrative.
The lower strings shone in the opening’s melodic fragment with a bountiful tone. The delivery generated superb playing for instance from the Brass who Franck gave plenty to say. Special credit should be given to the Principal French Horn Nicholas Mooney whose solos were sensual gold.
There was plenty for music lovers to enjoy and admire in this heartfelt concert with its surplus of deluxe sound blends and wild mix of tantalising tonal theatre.
