Flourish of baton for French connection

By WILLIAM DART


It's not often that a conductor has the chance to visit with an opera company and find himself still in town a week later, working with the orchestra in the same concerthall.

For Emmanuel Plasson, tonight's French programme with the Auckland Philharmonia is "a bit of the cherry on the cake after Carmen. I usually say goodbye after the last performance".

Plasson is the epitome of Gallic style, although he seems to have studied everywhere but France.

With conductor Michel Plasson as a father, it isn't surprising that Emmanuel was "right into the action from the earliest age, going to opera rehearsals and concerts at the highest level".

"Conducting was more of a curiosity than a real urge," he says. "The Pierre Monteux School at Yale offered the distance I needed."

But earlier, when he wanted to further his violin studies, London's Guildhall was chosen over Paris, "because in Paris the main teachers are international soloists and they are never there. It was more interesting to get into another culture".

For all this, Plasson seems determined I don't forget I'm talking to a Frenchman.

"Without being too arrogant," he says, "France was so important to so many musicians."

We discuss American composers, in particular Virgil Thomson and Aaron Copland. Plasson quickly adds Bernstein and "Gershwin, naturellement".

What then is the irresistible appeal of French music?

"A certain spirit of lightness, of quickness, a charm that's unique," Plasson says. "Carmen is the most vivid example. It is very much presenting life in the most seductive way.

"I guess we are peculiar people sometimes in the way we behave. We have problems understanding one another, with strikes and such. But we always come together after the anger and rebellion, go for a drink and like each other very much."

Tonight, music by Ravel, Dukas, Lalo and Gounod offers four different takes on the Gallic muse.

With Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin, Plasson settles on the composer's "mix of rigour - there's not one note too much or little - and the sensuality of his colours. The form is perfect and the harmonies are just daring enough".

He points to Ravel's brilliant orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

"Nobody has ever bettered it - and they have tried."

Feeling a little provocative, I ask, "Has Uncle Walt's Fantasia jaded us forever to the very real charms of Dukas' L'Apprenti Sorcier?"

The Frenchman roars with laughter. "I promise I won't wear the ears."

But clearly this work has no need of Mickey Mouse. Plasson enthuses in terms of "ravishing, luscious orchestration", reminding me it was the French who put the "haute" into "cuisine".

Karin Adam will be soloist in Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, a work close to Plasson's heart and sensibilities.

He has played it himself as a violinist, for competitions.

"It's almost like an opera. It's a combination of Spanish and French - Spanish spirit within French surroundings."

While an attempted discussion of the Gounod Symphony on tonight's bill is somehow diverted into more Bizet talk, Plasson is happier revealing why Dutilleux features so prominently on his repertoire list.

Alas, this elder statesman of French music, regularly hailed as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, is still difficult to propose to programmers when, as Plasson comments: "Stravinsky is what they call modern. In Europe the young audience is attracted to the music of Dutilleux because they hear the music on the radio that has some of the same rhythmic qualities.

"We can and must capitalise on that. It's a guarantee of our audience of tomorrow."

Performance

*Who: Emmanuel Plasson, with the Auckland Philharmonia

*Where and when: Aotea Centre, tonight 8pm