Kenneth Walton: Over the next two weeks, the RSNO and its passionately French musical director will attempt to bring Paris to life in Scotland

Published on Tuesday 17 March 2009 19:25

SPRINGTIME in Paris is something of a romantic cliché, famously expressed in the opening line of Cole Porter's famous song I Love Paris. But we should recall that he then went on to eulogise the merits of the great city in the autumn, winter and summer. In short, Paris is a wonderful city, no matter whether it "drizzles" or "sizzles".

For the next two weeks, courtesy of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and its thoroughly French musical director Stphane Denve, the spirit of the feisty French capital is coming big-time to Scotland and in a variety of guises. And despite the two-concert mini-series bearing the slightly premature title Springtime in Paris, and the presence of cabaret-style sideshows in the concert hall foyers – and a programme of wine-tastings, lectures and the odd whiff of French cuisine to boot – there's not a clich in sight.

Well that's not exactly true. There is one part of this multi-layered Parisian club sandwich where Denve has allowed himself a moment of sentimentality, or what he calls, in his thick brogue of an accent, a touch of "that old Paris oh-la-la".

It's that part of the opening concert he has called Gat Parisienne – a homage to the gay old days of Can-Can composer Jacques Offenbach, but with a modern-day twist in the form of a "video jockey", which, I am reliably informed, is the video equivalent of a disc jockey.

"He's a great guy," says Denve, referring to VJ Russell Kyle, who last worked with the RSNO when they colluded, a couple of years ago, on Gabriel Prokofiev's Concerto for Turntables. Kyle will turn his creativity to live visual projections designed to enhance the Can-Can and Jacques Ibert's symphonic suite Paris, which depicts the 1930's French capital in a series of quirky musical sketches. So, despite the presence of classy French pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet, ric Le Sage and Frank Braley, as well as harpsichordist Jory Vinikour in Poulenc's Concert champtre, this Parisian tribute looks like being anything but predictable. For a start, each of the two core concerts is – to misuse a sporting clich – a game of three halves, both of which begin at 7pm in Glasgow or 6pm in Edinburgh. "There are so many sides to Paris I want audiences to discover that we needed some extra time," says Denve. So each programme is divided up into three distinct sections separated by two intervals.

This weekend's opening concert (which includes a shortened additional performance tomorrow in Dundee) bears the title Paris with Style. En route to its bubbling finale – the aforementioned Gat Parisienne – are tributes to legendary visitors to Paris, Mozart and Rossini.

"Mozart really wanted to make a go of it in Paris, but it didn't really work for him. Rossini, on the other hand, came as director of the opera and stayed in the city till the end of his life," Denve explains as a rationale for programming Mozart's Paris symphony and the Sinfonia from Rossini's comic opera Le Voyage Reims.

Then the mood shifts to the charismatic 20th-century eccentricities of Poulenc, one of the out-of-the-box les six composers, whose Concerto for Two Pianos and Concert champtre make this a veritable keyboard extravaganza. "Poulenc captures the essence of Paris; you really feel the air in his music," says the conductor. Variety is no less a feature in next week's sequel, A Parisian Portrait. Here, Denve's flamboyant planning takes us from the intimacy of the fin de sicle Paris salon (small-scale chamber music by Faur, Satie and others with Denve himself at the piano), to a bluesy pairing of Ravel's jazz-inspired Piano Concerto in G (with Thibaudet as soloist) and Gershwin's wonderfully chaotic An American in Paris, via the very latest music of today's "New Parisian" composers.

It's that last group that promises to open our eyes to what new music means to Paris nowadays. At least one voice will be familiar to Scots audiences – that of Guillaume Connesson, whom Denve has championed regularly since joining the RSNO. His piano concerto, The Shining One, is an RSNO commission, premiered here by Thibaudet, to whom it is dedicated.

Of equal interest are works by Thierry Pcou, Richard Dubugnon, Fabien Waksman, Jrmie Rhorer and Bruno Mantovani (no relation to the famous light music conductor, but confusing that issue with a piece called On the Dance Floor), who represent Paris's new musical blood.

That, in itself, is an intriguing prospect, given Paris's historical – often hegemonic – dependence of single-figure super-icons over the years, ranging from Faur to Messiaen and Boulez. "Yes, politics still plays its part in guiding the arts and there's still evidence of the Boulez' legacy", says Denve. "But there is less of the father figure influence today in Paris, and composers are displaying a greater freedom in what they compose and what they do. I've tried to bring every style into this programme, though I think it's still possible to detect certain points in common."

That said, Connesson is something of a senior figure among them, both as a potent influence and, in the case of Waksman, as teacher. So those common factors could very well materialise as the easygoing neo-tonal strains that permeate Connesson's own music.

The aim of the whole project, says, Denve, is to reflect his own passions for the city he was very much a part of prior to taking up the RSNO baton four years ago. "I hope people will feel they have had an amazing journey, that they lave been entertained, that they have learnt something," he says. And he promises there won't be a beret or string of onions in sight.

&#149 Springtime in Paris: Paris with Style is at the Caird Hall, Dundee, tomorrow (01382 434940), Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Saturday 21 March (0141-353 8000) and Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Sunday 22 March (0131-529 6000). Springtime in Paris: A Parisian Portrait is at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Saturday 28 March, and Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Sunday 29 March. For more information on these and other Springtime in Paris events, visit www.rsno.org.uk