Here’s a fabulous review of our French concert, held at the Royal Academy of Music on 24 March 2024. This piece originally appeared on The Stuart Review, and is published here with permission.
The concert program featuring Lili Boulanger’s Faust et Hélène and Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique was a thrilling journey through passion, drama, and vivid orchestral storytelling. The concert showcased two works that, despite their differences in style and era, both delve into the realms of dreams, desire, and the supernatural. The performance captivated the audience with its emotional intensity, dramatic contrasts, and sheer musical brilliance.
Lili Boulanger – Faust et Hélène
The concert opened with Lili Boulanger’s Faust et Hélène, a rarely performed cantata that won her the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1913, making her the first woman to receive the award. The work is a powerful reimagining of the Faust legend, focusing on the tragic encounter between Faust and Hélène. From the opening bars, the music enveloped the audience in a lush, late-Romantic sound world, rich with orchestral colour and poignant vocal lines.
The performance was marked by Payne’s sensitive interpretation, which highlighted the dramatic contrasts and lush textures of Boulanger’s score. The orchestra played with a dynamic range that perfectly captured the shifting moods of the narrative—from the ominous, foreboding opening to the soaring, almost ethereal moments that depict Hélène’s allure. The soloists delivered compelling performances, bringing the characters to life with both vocal power and emotional nuance. However, there were occasional issues with projection, as some parts of the singing were difficult to hear—not due to the orchestra, but rather due to inconsistencies in the singers’ vocal delivery.
Boulanger’s music, full of sweeping melodies and striking harmonic shifts, felt fresh and immediate, showcasing a young composer at the height of her creative powers. The orchestra’s attention to detail and the singers’ expressive interpretations made Faust et Hélène not just a prelude to the more famous work to follow, but a standout highlight of the evening in its own right.
Hector Berlioz – Symphonie fantastique
Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique was one of the most revolutionary and programmatic works of the 19th century. From the opening of the Rêveries – Passions movement, the orchestra plunged into the fevered imagination of Berlioz’s protagonist, a young artist tormented by unrequited love. Payne’s approach was bold and theatrical, bringing out the symphony’s wild contrasts and vivid storytelling.
The March to the Scaffold was played with a relentless energy, the brass and percussion sections particularly shining as they depicted the protagonist’s grim march toward his doom. The strings, meanwhile, captured the haunted beauty of the Scène aux champs.
The final movement, Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath, was a tour de force of orchestral colour and imagination. The brass and woodwinds were outstanding, particularly in the frenzied, mocking rendition of the Dies Irae theme. The entire orchestra seemed to revel in Berlioz’s macabre vision, culminating in a finale that was both thrilling and unsettling.
The evening was a testament to the power of music to transport us into other worlds, whether through Boulanger’s haunting portrayal of mythic love and loss or Berlioz’s fever-dream of passion and despair. The orchestra delivered a performance of exceptional skill and emotional impact, making this a concert to remember.
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