The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is currently presenting Anri Sala: Ravel Ravel Interval, a solo exhibition featuring an immersive video installation by the French-Albanian artist Anri Sala in the Contemporary Art Square, which is a space dedicated to contemporary art exhibitions. The show is ongoing, from November 29, 2024 – April 27, 2025, and unfolds in a specially designed chamber that limits echo. Sala presents two quasi-simultaneous interpretations of French composer Maurice Ravel’s (1875 – 1937) Piano Concerto for The Left Hand in D Major (1929 – 1930) by Canadian and French pianists Louis Lortie and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. The compositions are played on two semi-transparent sheets, one behind the other. The hands of the pianists are visibly similar, and we are not told whose recording is in front, and who is at the back. Alexandrine Théorêt, assistant curator of international modern and contemporary art at MMFA, organised the installation and joins STIR for an interview exploring the concerto and the artwork.

Interpretations of tempo and tempo variations differ depending on the soloist or the conductor leading the performance. Sala, by commissioning scores with predetermined variations and presenting the work in a space with limited echo, seeks to highlight this gap.
– Alexandrine Théorêt, assistant curator of international modern and contemporary art, MMFA

A concerto is a musical composition that is designed to be played by one or more soloists, accompanied by an orchestra. Concerto for The Left Hand in D Major was commissioned by the Austrian-American pianist Paul Wittgenstein (1887 – 1961). Wittgenstein had been a promising young pianist in the world of Austro-Hungarian classical music until 1913 when the First World War broke out, and he was called up for military service. The following year, he was shot in the right elbow at the Battle of Galicia, leading to his capture by the Russians and the eventual amputation of his right arm for medical reasons.

Undeterred, Wittgenstein decided during his time in a POW camp in Russia that he would continue with his music career as a one-armed pianist. Upon his release, the pianist began practising till he was competent enough to perform as such and eventually approached several leading composers, including Ravel, to create compositions for him. Concerto for The Left Hand in D Major is the most famous among these.

Returning to the contemporary art piece Ravel Ravel Interval (2017), Sala trains the camera on the left hands of the performers as they play their own interpretations of the concerto, rest, and then begin again. The pianists perform the composition several times, and are accompanied by an orchestra that is off-screen. As Théorêt explains, despite the quest for perfection that typifies classical music, there remains an element of personal freedom in the interpretation of compositions. She continues, saying, “Interpretations of tempo and tempo variations differ depending on the soloist or the conductor leading the performance. Sala, by commissioning scores with predetermined variations and presenting the work in a space with limited echo, seeks to highlight this gap.”

Beyond highlighting the tension between creative agency and reproduction in classical music, Sala’s project also possesses a political dimension through its chosen composition. Théorêt tells STIR, “The work that [Ravel] composed for the pianist and that Sala chose for his immersive installation is one that, thematically and instrumentally, evokes the violence of combat, the thought of death and a nightmarish experience.” Ravel experienced first-hand the horrors of the First World War and remained a fervent pacifist. It is also no accident that Sala picked Concerto for The Left Hand in D Major for recitation. He is well aware of its political implications. As the curator explains, “The right hands are also visible in certain shots, resting on the pianists’ thighs. As the very last passage played by the pianists draws to a close, we see the hands fall limp, apparently lifeless; it is not the left hands, but the right ones, evoking not only Wittgenstein’s, but also those of countless soldiers, lost in battle.”

Ravel Ravel Interval gives audiences in Montreal much to dwell on beyond the sublime music they are treated to. The installation speaks to artistic freedom, not typically associated with classical music, and to the ability of artists to overcome life-altering circumstances in the pursuit of their craft. Perhaps most urgently, it urges us to think about the horrors of war globally.

‘Anri Sala: Ravel Ravel Interval’ is on view at the MMFA in Montreal from November 29, 2024 – April 27, 2025.