Nathalie Stutzmann’s whirlwind first season as conductor and musical director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra draws to a close. Stutzmann has emerged as a captivating and invigorating presence. The ASO’s performance Thursday night did much to illuminate the inner workings of Stutzmann’s musical vision and explain her illusive je ne sais quoi that has energized the orchestra she helms.
The evening started with a preconcert screening of My Boléro with Nathalie Stutzmann, an ASO-produced documentary of about 30 minutes that follows Stutzmann as she takes a deep dive into the history and compositional nature of Maurice Ravel’s Boléro. Stutzmann begins the film with the assertion that while Ravel’s Boléro is one of the most recognizable pieces in all of music, it is still misunderstood.
“Something about the way people spoke about the piece — ‘light, easy, fun, simple’ — struck me as false,” explains Stutzmann in the film. “Studying the score, I just knew that there was something else behind it — something darker. But what?” Thus begins a fascinating re-evaluation of Ravel’s most enduring work and a visually sumptuous trek to Stutzmann’s native France as she delves into the composition’s remarkable background.
Boléro has its origins as a ballet commissioned by dancer Ida Rubenstein, and a further examination of that history, along with a thorough analysis of clues contained within the composition itself, led Stutzmann to conclude that the work is actually ominous in nature.
She interprets Boléro as an ever-escalating story of a female dancer whose performance is ogled by an audience of unsavory and increasingly unhinged men. In the harrowing final moments — when the piece is at its thundering climax — the men are driven to violence by the captivating performance.
These revelations fueled Stutzmann’s approach to conducting Boléro, and the film shows her at rehearsal preparing the ASO with a thorough explanation of what events are unfolding in the story as the composition builds upon itself.
That scene goes a long way toward explaining how Stutzmann has so revitalized the orchestra. Not only is she a consummate master of conducting from a technical standpoint, her keen awareness of the classical music format as a storytelling vehicle opens up a new degree of connection with the pieces she conducts.
The concert commenced with the overture to Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser, and that newfound understanding of Stutzmann’s approach to conducting made the performance all the more enjoyable. Where most conductors seem detached on the podium, Stutzmann moves in a manner that is personable and close. She conducts as much with her facial expressions as her arms and seems to carry on brief nonverbal conversations with her players. The effect is nothing short of invigorating and infuses the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with tremendous vitality.
The second piece, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37, saw the ASO joined by French pianist Lise de la Salle. Her performance was fluid and adept, with its most notable feature being a sense of delicacy applied throughout. It is remarkable to hear such tonal eloquence on such a technically demanding piece, and it made for a deeply satisfying listen.
That same delicate touch failed to resonate as strongly in De la salle’s unexpected encore. The piece — a Ferruccio Bursoni piano transcription of a Johann Sebastian Bach chorale prelude in F minor originally for organ — was so softly played it was almost inaudible. The piece itself was little more than a slow cycling of arpeggiated patterns and seemed to blunt the audience enthusiasm that De la salle had built up with her primary performance.
The evening’s second half was devoted entirely to Ravel and opened with an orchestrated version of “Le Tombeau de Couperin,” a piece originally conceived of as a set of solo piano pieces. Once again Stutzmann’s personable style was on full display and there was a genuine sense of fun throughout.
The piece itself has somber origins with each section being inspired by a different friend of Ravel who died fighting in World War I. But it is clear that the composer wanted to celebrate life rather than wallow in morbidity. Stutzmann’s deeper understanding of compositional intent was on full display once again.
The evening concluded with Boléro in a grand and triumphant finale that had the near capacity audience on their feet in enthusiastic applause. That performance, when heard in conjunction with the documentary, made it clear that Stutzmann’s long term contribution to the ASO will be her holistic approach with its prioritization of narrative and theatricality.
It is a welcome innovation and one that bodes well for what will hopefully be many prosperous seasons to come.
The program repeats Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. (without the film).
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Jordan Owen began writing about music professionally at the age of 16 in Oxford, Mississippi. A 2006 graduate of the Berklee College of Music, he is a professional guitarist, bandleader and composer. He is currently the lead guitarist for the jazz group Other Strangers, the power metal band Axis of Empires and the melodic death/thrash metal band Century Spawn.
