PSO's 'Tortelier & The Firebird' lets the music speak for itself
Most concert programs are built on variety. The musicians who perform them usually have a deeper relationship with one or two of the pieces. But when conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier returns to the Heinz Hall podium this week, all four pieces he'll conduct are special for him.
"As I grow older, I'm getting more and more in the core of the music I am performing," says Tortelier, 63. "Only with time and age do you get deeper into the music."
Tortelier will conduct the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, with violin soloist Nicola Benedetti, at concerts Thursday through Saturday at Heinz Hall, Downtown. The program is Joan Tower's "Tambour," Maurice Ravel's "Tzigane," Ernest Chausson's "Poeme" and Igor Stravinsky's "The Firebird" Suite.
The French conductor also is looking forward to working with the soloist again. He accompanied Benedetti when she was a teenager at several important concerts in her career. Now 23, the Scottish musician has just released her fifth album on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label.
"She's really doing very well. We haven't had a chance to do something quite as important together (as the concerts in Pittsburgh), especially performing repertoire so close to my heart," he says. A former violinist, Tortelier has lived with Chausson's "Poeme" and Ravel's "Tzigane" for decades. There's even a video on YouTube of him performing "Tzigane" with his sister at the piano, taken from a 70th birthday concert in France for his father, the legendary cellist Paul Tortelier.
Benedetti's newest recording is of concerti by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Max Bruch. She views Ravel's "Tzigane" as being a different kind of piece, apart from not being in concerto form.
" 'Tzigane' is a rare opportunity to really enter into another persona," she says. "A lot of classical music depicts time and place -- 19th century Germany or baroque Italy -- but very seldom do you feel you're imitating an entire world of people. With 'Tzigane,' you can really act in a way."
The other piece she'll play, also not a concerto, is a complete contrast with the Ravel.
"The Chausson is quite a tragic piece, I think. There's a lot of introverted emotion in Chausson," she says. "It begins and ends very deep inside the soul. It has an obviously wonderful melody and very exposed cadenza at the beginning, which really allows you to play with the orchestra, very pianissimo, very intimately."
Igor Stravinsky's music for his ballet "The Firebird" is among Tortelier's favorite pieces. He's played it in every version Stravinsky created, including conducting the complete ballet with dancers.
"It's interesting to do it with dancers, which can make life difficult. But I don't need the physical ballet," he says. "The music which is on the page produces visions blossoming about what's going on without necessarily being too attached to the story. I am not a choreographer or musicologist. The music speaks for itself."
He'll be leading the suite that the composer prepared in 1945, and includes more of the 1910 ballet's music than the very brief 1919 suite.
"The 1945 suite is more of a musical journey, a symphonic picture of the ballet," he says.
Additional Information:
'Tortelier & The Firebird'
With: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor; Nicola Benedetti, violin
When: 1:30 p.m. Thursday and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Admission: $12.50-$93
Where: Heinz Hall, Downtown
Details: 412-392-4900 or website
