SFIPF Couples Ravel with Contemporary Séverac

Jeffrey LaDeur performing Déodat de Séverac’s Cerdaña (screenshot from yesterday afternoon’s live YouTube video)

Yesterday afternoon the eighth annual San Francisco International Piano Festival (SFIPF) presented its second recital at Old First Presbyterian Church. Each half of the program was taken by a single pianist, Gwendolyn Mok followed by Jeffrey LaDeur; and each of them played a multi-movement suite. Mok began the recital with a performance of Maurice Ravel’s five-movement suite Miroirs. The intermission was followed by a second five-movement suite, Cerdaña, composed by Déodat de Séverac about six years after Ravel completed Miroirs.

Miroirs is probably less known as a piano suite and more for two of the movements that Ravel subsequently orchestrated: “Une barque sur l’océan” (a boat on the ocean) and “Alborada del gracioso” (morning song of the jester). These are preceded by “Noctuelles” (night moths) and “Oiseaux tristes” (sad  birds); and “La vallée des cloches” (the valley of bells) concludes the suite. These are all descriptive titles, but I felt that Mok’s verbal account of the descriptions went on longer than necessary. I have become familiar with all of these pieces through recordings, and my own humble opinion is that the music speaks perfectly well for itself! Once Mok took her place at the keyboard, she evoked, for the most part, a far richer experience than her verbal introduction provided. The only weak spots were “Une barque sur l’océan,” which came across as all notes and no expressiveness, and “Alborada del gracioso,” whose climax was hammered out too aggressively.

According to my records, I have not listened to Séverac’s music for about five years. That was when I encountered a video of a performance of four of his songs sung by Ellen Leslie, accompanied at the piano by Eric Choate. LaDeur’s account was thus my first encounter with the composer’s keyboard music. Each of the five movements was dedicated to one of his contemporaries: Yves Nat, Laura Albéniz, Carlos de Castéra, Frank Haviland, and Marguerite Long. Sadly, while I appreciated the spirit behind Séverac’s intentions, there was little in his rhetoric to hold my attention.