The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 12

12 THURSDAY FEBRUARY 20 1997 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH ARTS Jean-Michel Jarre explains why he has waited 20 years to release the sequel to his ground-breaking album Give me that old-time synthesiser music Picture: ANDREW CROWLEY Neil McCormick Jean-Michel Jarre the 1970s pin-up of synthesised music has defied the ageing process JEAN-MICHEL JARRE certainly knows how to make an entrance Every head turned as he strolled into the ornate atrium of the London hotel where we were meeting And although the whispers suggested few were sure who he was they could tell he as somebody For one thing there was his appearance: a bright blue furry' jacket leather trousers and sunglasses set off by a perfectly judged tan and thick black hair swept romantically off the face Few people in their late forties can wear an ensemble like that without looking foolish but JMJ (as we shall henceforth refer to him) is definitely one of those few his innate confidence overcoming any lingering sense of the outlandish Then there was the way he walked right down the middle of the room without pause or hesitation entirely comfortable in this Tuxurious setting and completely uninterested in the eyes following him And finally (a bit of a giveaway this) there was the film star on his arm It is hard to know whether to envy or pity Charlotte Rampling also known as Madame JMJ Thin and elegantly poised dressed with considerably more subtlety than her husband (in a classic suit) she remains strikingly beautiful in her early fifties She might reasonably expect to be the centre of attention anywhere she goes And yet she somehow fades in the full-on glare of her partner a man in whom the ageing process appears to have been inexplicably suspended Although there is in fact only two age difference between them JMJ could be two decades younger He is an hour-and-a-half late for our appointment but immediately grasps this particular nettle After taking leave of his wife he shakes my hand smiles with comical exasperation and proceeds to relate a humorous version of his travails in a Gallic accent so warm and yet sophisticated that (I feel certain) it almost finishes off the waitress who has been lurking next to my table for the past few minutes taking an inordinately long time to arrange my coffee and croissant to her satisfaction and mixing programs developed in the Eighties Dismissing the idea that creating a sequel to his biggest-selling work might be viewed as trading on past glories he argues persuasively that digital technology took electronic music down a blind alley Musicians he says were compelled to work in an increasingly cerebral and abstract fashion on samples of existing sound rather than creating original sounds (which he rather cutely describes as as they had with the first wave of synthesisers excitement of being able to work on sounds in a tactile manual almost sensual way is what drew me to electronic music in the first he explains lack of limitations is very dangerous It is like the difference for a painter of getting four tubes with four main colours or being in front of a computer with two million colours You have to scan the two million colours and when you arrive to the last one you have obviously forgotten the first one In the Eighties we became archivists and everything became rather cold as a The images and analogies JMJ uses to describe his music stem largely from the world of art He talks of kneading and moulding sounds like clay and of being absorbed by textures and perspectives shadows and light colours and timbres For an individual so centrally involved in an area of music driven by technology there is a surprisingly Luddite aspect to his character Talking derogatorily of CD-Roms and the limitations of what he terms he makes the bold claim that books abstract painting and instrumental music remain the most interactive art forms because they call upon people to use their imagination is no progress in terms of JMJ insists Chinese musicians 5000 years ago used to express or classical musicians two centuries ago or techno musicians today or whatever kind of musicians we will hear two centuries from now was is and will be the same I mean the ideas of solitude love relationships towards death and life the basic fears and the basic joys are the same whether you are expressing this on a violin or a time I get the train and I am looking at cows in a field somewhere in France for two JMJ explains this time I take the plane and I am flying round and round Heathrow looking at cows in fields in England for two hours I know Next time I might try cycling Or Rollerblades It is quite possible to imagine JMJ on Rollerblades perhaps scooting through some architectural monolith directing an electronic orchestra in a symphony of synths and lasers The poster boy of the synthesiser world JMJ is an unusually glamorous icon in a field characterised by physical anonymity and musical obscurity The son of film composer Maurice Jarre JMJ studied at the Paris Conservatoire where he came under the influence of electronic pioneer Pierre Schaeffer After years writing film music advertising jingles ballet scores and pop songs for other artists (including Frangoise Hardy and Patrick Juvet) he recorded the ground-breaking electronic composition Oxygene in 1976 (the same year he married Charlotte Rampling) The album spawned a hit single and made JMJ a star in his own right His subsequent career has been divided between recording synthesiser albums and mounting huge audiovisual spectacles with fireworks lighting and lasers to accompany his music such as the concert that lit up the skyline of London's Docklands in 1988 The populist nature of such events and at times overly dramatic qualities of his music have led to his work being dismissed as a kind of symphonic pomp-rock a vulgarisation of the electronic experiments of the likes of Kraftwerk or Philip Glass Serious critics and aficionados of the electronic scene have tended to treat JMJ as an upstart with a talent for self-publicity But with the explosion in electronic techno on music and parallel developments in the ambient scene it may be time to reassess his contribution to modern music Twenty years after its release Oxygene sounds remarkably contemporary a fact that has perhaps contributed to decision to create a sequel Oxygene 7-13 (the original had six parts) which is released by Sony this week feel totally in sync with what is going on he claims citing among his current listening preferences Underworld Orbital Leftfield Aphex Twin the Chemical Brothers the Prodigy and the Orb (whose current hit Toxy-gene began life as a remix of one of his tracks) He launches into an involved theory about how the two things that changed music most in the 20th century are technology (because it took music away from the elite and brought it to the masses) and Africa because it introduced a combination of rhythm and that broke for ever the rigid codes of classical music quite he concludes see that at the end of the century there is a music based on both technological and African ingredients Techno is modern tribal music using technologically advanced instruments with African rhythms and body language In person JMJ quickly dispels the notion that he is some kind of virtual Johnny Hallyday a vulgar Euro-showbusiness figure hiding his shallowness behind a wall of dry ice Despite his rock-god appearance he has a serious intense demeanour and tackles the history development and potential of music (electronic and acoustic) with academic rigour and genuine passion For Oxygene 7-13 he returned to the analogue synthesisers (monophonic instruments with no memory storage or sequencing capabilities) of the Seventies eschewing computer recording Rock REVIEWS A mixed-up menu and indifferent fare Ticking their way into an enigmatic abyss Ballet English National Ballet Touring Music Russian National Orchestra Mikhail Pletnev Symphony Hall Birmingham ENGLISH National new touring bill yokes together an extraordinary assortment: Les Sylphides Encounters (skater Christopher on-stage memoir of life and love) and Who Cares? Gershwin cocktail dance) I help thinking of advice on programming: do it like a meal transubstantiation of dance into poetry is punctured by earthbound first attempt on boards (offered as the main course) that the after-dinner-feelgood of Who Cares? is thus diminished The 1970 Balanchine is a new acquisition for the ENB succumbing to the American-jazz-pastiche fever that is currently starter entree dessert It matters that the Keatsian fantasy of Les Sylphides is unleashed cold on an audience who are still checking their seat numbers and taking off their coats as the Chopin begins that its STICKING to an advertised programme is not the Russian way so it was small surprise that Mikhail Pletnev and his Russian National Orchestra in this first concert of a UK tour had replaced the promised extracts from Cinderella an unusual and enticing prospect with the time-honoured overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila True with Third Piano Concerto and Prokofiev's Seventh Symphony already in the concert Cinderella could well have taken it beyond the stroke of midnight but had nobody thought of that at the planning stage? Or did nobody consider that as a sop to anyone who might have gone along in the hope of hearing Cinderella some of the numbers could have been played as encores instead of the usual old sidered and compelling The Russian National most acute and revelatory of responses vividly evoked the strange world of Prokofiev's Seventh Symphony its spectral chill and eerily nostalgic lyricism Again the finale was particularly telling The emotional balance of the symphony with its disturbing undertones of valedictory wistfulness can be upset if Prokofiev's lightweight conventional alternative ending is added Much more effective as here is to leave the movement ticking its way into an enigmatic abyss: the poignant atmosphere was movingly maintained At the Festival Flail (0171 960 1242) tomorrow and at St David's Hall Cardiff (01222 878444) on Saturday GEOFFREY NORRIS its expressive substance His solution to the ending is a case in point There are other ways of making the peroration of the finale's main theme achieve its climactic impact but Lugansky beginning it slowly and quietly and raising the volume gradually invests it with a sense of burgeoning As an idea it is arresting but it stems naturally from the long-breathed phrasing used throughout the concerto He makes dramatic points with conscious but not self-conscious thrust and where appropriate allows the music its moments of reflective rev erie The interpretation is all of a piece cohesive con TELEGRAPH READER OFFER Khachaturian waltz and Per-petuum mobile It is odd that Pletnev has moaned about Russian orchestras recycling the same repertory Neither the Rachmaninov concerto nor the Prokofiev symphony is unfamiliar but fascinating interpretations overrode any niggles Nikolai Lugansky soloist in the Rachmaninov is a deeply thoughtful musician and used his commanding technique not merely to dazzle but to search the music for Maturity of feeling in early work Picture: ALASTAIR MUIR First Night Ivanov Almeida Islington The 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our ballet companies Redesigned by Ben Benson one of team it looks like an advert for a dancewear shop A poorly painted heap of wonky beige skyscrapers and some bushes suggest Central Park but the frilled or ribboned skating skirts and colour-coded waistcoats scream Monte Carlo Ballet in 1995 showed London a much sassier design and sense of style The band under Patrick Flynn had terrific fun with captivating songs on opening night in Manchester but the dancers looked less ebullient with airy showdancing Giuseppe Picone as the leading man glued a scared smile to his face as his nice classical style disintegrated in rhythmic confusion Lisa Pavane picked her way through The Man I Love duet like Queen Bess stepping on Sir Walter cloak Monica Perego did manage to get a capricious slink into her body between the whizzing fouettes of My One and Only and languid Elisabeth Miegge stood out in the ensemble but the success depends strictly on playing off one American dance style (Balanchine ballet) against another (Broadway jazz) and the ENB is versed in neither It has however worked very hard to verse itself in Les Sylphides masterpiece The Dame Alicia Markova has coaxed the arms and shoulders into soft roundness the feet into delicate pointes the bodies into magically angled poses If only one could see the eyes surrendering to fantasy a musical response lifting those little jumps into glints of moonlight If only Encounters using Paul Simon songs is best when the choreographer portrays his emotions about his parents and stepmother honesty and his natural Forties-shaded style mesh But the pas de deux about his wives and skating partner are bland PR jobs Palace Theatre Manchester until Sat (0161 242 2503) then Southampton Mayflower (01703 711811) ISMENE BROWN Ralph Fiennes and Bill Patterson: superb acting ence flinch One readily understands why Frayn finds the play What makes it a masterpiece is that Chekhov knows what all depressives know that elsewhere life is going on as normal The play is filled with beautifully observed supporting characters all brought to life with wonderful detail and freshness in Jonathan superbly acted production The suffocating boredom and spiteful gossip of provincial life are brilliantly captured in the Act Two party scene in which the guests are given nothing to eat or drink by their miserly hostess And with extraordinary daring final confrontation with his wife is immediately preceded by a raucous blokish booze-up It is one of those evenings when you want to salute almost the entire cast Oliver Ford Davies offers hilarious value as misanthropic uncle growling like a bear with a sore head Anthony gives a delightfully Tiggerish performance as the amiable steward while Bill Paterson is one of the most entertaining and touching drunks ever seen on stage The ending is shattering and you leave the theatre in no doubt that seen a great production of a great and unfairly neglected play CHARLES SPENCER 'satisfied to availability ORDER BY TELEPHONE OR BY POST THE playwright and translator Michael Frayn who probably understands Chekhov as well as anyone in Britain has described Ivanov as the most lowering thing Chekhov ever I can only report that it feel like that at the outstanding indeed revelatory production which opened last night It is true that there are scenes which are so piercingly painful that you can hardly bring yourself to watch But there are others so blissfully funny that you find yourself physically helpless with laughter One readily understands why David Hare who has provided the fine new translation is impatient with those who have patronised Ivanov as mere apprentice work (Chekhov was 27 when he wrote it in 1887) It is indeed different from the four great plays of his maturity but in a production as excellent as this it can easily stand comparison with them Ivanov is a mixture of farci-cal comedy unashamed melodrama and a psycholog-ically-acute analysis of a man in the grip of what we would now call clinical depression It is no coincidence that Ralph Fiennes a famous Hamlet for the Almeida should now be starring as Ivanov Ivanov repeatedly and bitterly compares himself to Hamlet and like the Prince he has come to see the world as stale flat and There are good reasons for this His Jewish wife who has been disowned by her family is dying of TB and Ivanov is consumed with guilt because he has ceased to love her His estate is in decay short of money and at 35 his idealism has given way to a sense of exhaustion There is however something deeper troubling Ivanov He is overwhelmed by despair and futility which he cannot understand Before Freud put pen to paper Chekhov a doctor clearly understood psychological illness Fiennes gives a remarkable performance in this harrowing role Anyone who has had any experience of clinical depression will recognise the listlessness of his voice the sudden bursts of pettish temper the restlessness and the self-contempt He is superb too at sardonic humour while the scene in which he turns on his loving desperately-ill wife (a heart-wrenching performance from Harriet Walter) and screams that a makes the audi.