Full Album available // Ravel: Complete Piano Works & Piano Concertos by Jean Doyen 🎧 Qobuz (Hi-Res) bit.ly/4bromLj Tidal (Hi-Res) bit.ly/44s9GsS 🎧 Apple Music (Lossless) apple.co/44Zc4I5 Deezer (Hi-Fi) bit.ly/44zKJMf 🎧 Amazon Music (Hi-Res) amzn.to/4aT6ZDb Spotify (mp3) bit.ly/3UIqusy 🎧 UA-cam Music (mp4) bit.ly/3QwVsRI ❤🔊 Discover our new website: www.classicalmusicreference.com/ Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Miroirs, M. 43 00:00 I. Noctuelles. Très léger (2024 Remastered, Paris 1960) 04:32 II. Oiseaux tristes. Très lent (2024 Remastered, Paris 1960) 08:15 III. Une barque sur l'océan. D'un rythme souple (2024 Remastered, Paris 1960) 15:01 IV. Alborada del gracioso. Assez vif (2024 Remastered, Paris 1960) 21:37 V. La vallée des cloches. Très lent (2024 Remastered, Paris 1960) Piano: Jean Doyen Recorded in 1960, at Paris New mastering in 2024 by AB for CMRR 🔊 Join us with your phone on our WhatsApp fanpage (our latest album preview): bit.ly/3Mraw1r 🔊 Download CMRR's recordings in High fidelity audio (QOBUZ): bit.ly/370zcMg 🔊 Follow us on Spotify: spoti.fi/3016eVr ❤ If you enjoy CMRR content, you can join our Patreon page and support our investments in equipment and software for $3 per month. Thank you very much :) www.patreon.com/cmrr/about Frédéric Gonet: All of Maurice Ravel's art might be summed up in a few words: Spain, classicism, lyricism, provocation, sensitivity, daring, childhood, wager... Almost all these elements are already present in the Sérénade grotesque-missing from this recording since it was unpublished at the time-which he composed at the age of 18. Unlike many others, Ravel would not have to search for himself; he was immediately himself and, in this short piece, unveiled his favorite themes, with Spain at the top of the list. Just like the Menuet antique, which followed it, this Sérénade straightaway reveals those influences and immediately belies the generally accepted idea of Ravel as an epigone of Debussy, to whom he owed very little and even less to Wagner (this fact was sufficiently surprising for the period that it is worth stressing). If there is any influence, it is heard immediately, and the words themselves say it all: 'serenade' and 'grotesque'; 'emotion' and 'humorous piece': the model is Emmanuel Chabrier. This influence is so obvious that Ravel would mention it himself in his Esquisse autobiographique concerning his highly famous Pavane pour une infante défunte (Spain again) of 1899, about which, moreover, he would be quite severe. In those three works, the scene is set; a new century had just begun, and Ravel was taking an interest in pianism. This would result in Jeux d'eau (1901). At that time, Debussy had composed practically nothing of significance for the instrument, and Ravel, in a discreet homage, finally took up piano technique where Liszt had left it. But it is especially the Sonatine (1903-05) that one must look at, for it is doubtless, in its unassuming surroundings, the most intimately Ravelian of his works. The title itself is a provocation, for this is a piece of great technical difficulty, and, above all, it sums up by itself all the themes mentioned at the beginning. An in-depth analysis reveals the Spanish turns, and here one learns a great deal about Ravel's classicism: whereas that of the Menuet antique illustrates (as the composer himself would emphasize on the subject of the Tombeau de Couperin) that the "homage addressed itself less to Couperin than to French music of the 18th century," the classicism of the Sonatine teaches us that Ravel venerated Mozart. How many riches in those 12 minutes: a concise, precise art, a harmonic language as personal as it is audacious, much tenderness and lyricism but always considerable restraint: Ravel in a nutshell. Written only a few years later, ***Miroirs*** (1905) provides a violent contrast. This is perhaps his most unexpected work and, in the final analysis, the least personal-as if he had composed the Sonatine for himself and Miroirs for the others. Noctuelles and Oiseaux tristes dazzle with their daring and mystery, but ultimately, Une barque sur l'océan, the only real intrusion into Debussy's universe, is perhaps less successful than Jeux d'eau. Was Ravel aware of this? He attempted an orchestration of it, which he immediately disowned. Alborada del gracioso is the blossoming of the Sérénade grotesque, and the cycle concludes with a piece of bewitching beauty, but whose long cantilena in the middle seems quite foreign to the composer's universe. Impervious to Debussy and Wagner, Ravel was also indifferent towards certain literary movements of his time, particularly Symbolism. His tastes ran more readily to a 'fantastic Romanticism' as illustrated by Gaspard de la nuit (1908), inspired by three poems by Aloysius Bertrand. Here, Ravel set himself the challenge of writing the most technically difficult work in the entire piano repertoire. This does not make it less personal, even though this universe would be short-lived: other projects in this 'Gothic-Romantic' spirit, lyric works in particular, would unfortunately never come to be. After a thundering beginning, the Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911) return to something like the intimacy of the Sonatine, with its concision and subtlety, on an ethereal tone so refined that it even elicited a compliment from Debussy (ordinarily rather sparing in this regard) towards his young colleague. Composed in the midst of the Great War, Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914-17) is an homage to friends fallen in combat, including Colonel de Marliave, Marguerite Long's husband. Marguerite Long herself gave the first performance of the cycle in 1919. Ignoring his era but, in the long run, always in the avant-garde and soon downright militant, Ravel imposed Neo-classicism well before Stravinsky in this suite of six pieces that pay tribute to French harpsichordists. The genius is there, but the expression appears more distant. Youth has fled, and the war, along with the death of his beloved mother, seems to have hardened the tone somewhat; Ravel synthesizes himself. Moreover, Le Tombeau de Couperin would be his farewell to an instrument to which this brilliant orchestrator gave so much. However, he returned to the piano at the end of his career, but with the support of the orchestra this time, composing two concertos simultaneously between 1929 and 1931. In the meantime, jazz arrived, and its echoes are noticeable in these two scores. But these elements are only just for show (some see the influence of Gershwin here!!!), like a smokescreen suitable for masking the essential, for, when all is said and done, in nearly forty years, nothing has really changed. The Concerto in G major, full of light and serenity, pays homage one last time to the masters he admired: in this case, Mozart and Saint-Saëns, according to his own admission. But the noisy final movement, like a huge gag, again recalls Chabrier and brings to mind certain passages from Sous les lauriers roses by Déodat de Séverac, another great admirer of the author of Gwendoline. Overall, the Concerto "for both hands" is the work of a Sage whose destiny is fulfilled. Provocation again, so much do the two Concertos differ in tone. The relief of the Concerto in G contrasts with the cries of suffering with which the Concerto in D for the left hand (his most anguished work next to La Valse) comes to an end, and are practically the last important notes he was able to write. What should we believe: light or shadow? And Ravel leaves us with an evasive reply, like Scarbo in Gaspard de la nuit. Album available // Ravel: Complete Orchestral Works by Manuel Rosenthal 🎧 Qobuz bit.ly/3g6JxaQ Tidal bit.ly/3IHqHTW 🎧 Apple Music apple.co/3o8NTT4 Deezer bit.ly/3rYit2X 🎧 Amazon Music amzn.to/3u90GJi Spotify spoti.fi/3L21C8i 🎧 UA-cam Music bit.ly/4dYpt7d Maurice Ravel PLAYLIST (references recordings): ua-cam.com/video/AgJ5UJN4QDY/v-deo.html
Brillante und wunderschöne Interpretation dieser impressionistischen und perfekt komponierten Suite im veränderlichen Tempo mit klarem doch elegantem Klang des technisch fehlerlosen Klaviers und mit künstlerisch kontrollierter Dynamik. Die verbesserte Tonqualität ist auch erstaunlich hoch als eine Originalaufnahme von vierundsechzig Jahren vor. Alles ist faszinierend!
Frédéric Gonet: All of Maurice Ravel's art might be summed up in a few words: Spain, classicism, lyricism, provocation, sensitivity, daring, childhood, wager... Almost all these elements are already present in the Sérénade grotesque-missing from this recording since it was unpublished at the time-which he composed at the age of 18. Unlike many others, Ravel would not have to search for himself; he was immediately himself and, in this short piece, unveiled his favorite themes, with Spain at the top of the list. Just like the Menuet antique, which followed it, this Sérénade straightaway reveals those influences and immediately belies the generally accepted idea of Ravel as an epigone of Debussy, to whom he owed very little and even less to Wagner (this fact was sufficiently surprising for the period that it is worth stressing). If there is any influence, it is heard immediately, and the words themselves say it all: 'serenade' and 'grotesque'; 'emotion' and 'humorous piece': the model is Emmanuel Chabrier. This influence is so obvious that Ravel would mention it himself in his Esquisse autobiographique concerning his highly famous Pavane pour une infante défunte (Spain again) of 1899, about which, moreover, he would be quite severe. In those three works, the scene is set; a new century had just begun, and Ravel was taking an interest in pianism. This would result in Jeux d'eau (1901). At that time, Debussy had composed practically nothing of significance for the instrument, and Ravel, in a discreet homage, finally took up piano technique where Liszt had left it. But it is especially the Sonatine (1903-05) that one must look at, for it is doubtless, in its unassuming surroundings, the most intimately Ravelian of his works. The title itself is a provocation, for this is a piece of great technical difficulty, and, above all, it sums up by itself all the themes mentioned at the beginning. An in-depth analysis reveals the Spanish turns, and here one learns a great deal about Ravel's classicism: whereas that of the Menuet antique illustrates (as the composer himself would emphasize on the subject of the Tombeau de Couperin) that the "homage addressed itself less to Couperin than to French music of the 18th century," the classicism of the Sonatine teaches us that Ravel venerated Mozart. How many riches in those 12 minutes: a concise, precise art, a harmonic language as personal as it is audacious, much tenderness and lyricism but always considerable restraint: Ravel in a nutshell. Written only a few years later, ***Miroirs*** (1905) provides a violent contrast. This is perhaps his most unexpected work and, in the final analysis, the least personal-as if he had composed the Sonatine for himself and Miroirs for the others. Noctuelles and Oiseaux tristes dazzle with their daring and mystery, but ultimately, Une barque sur l'océan, the only real intrusion into Debussy's universe, is perhaps less successful than Jeux d'eau. Was Ravel aware of this? He attempted an orchestration of it, which he immediately disowned. Alborada del gracioso is the blossoming of the Sérénade grotesque, and the cycle concludes with a piece of bewitching beauty, but whose long cantilena in the middle seems quite foreign to the composer's universe. Impervious to Debussy and Wagner, Ravel was also indifferent towards certain literary movements of his time, particularly Symbolism. His tastes ran more readily to a 'fantastic Romanticism' as illustrated by Gaspard de la nuit (1908), inspired by three poems by Aloysius Bertrand. Here, Ravel set himself the challenge of writing the most technically difficult work in the entire piano repertoire. This does not make it less personal, even though this universe would be short-lived: other projects in this 'Gothic-Romantic' spirit, lyric works in particular, would unfortunately never come to be. After a thundering beginning, the Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911) return to something like the intimacy of the Sonatine, with its concision and subtlety, on an ethereal tone so refined that it even elicited a compliment from Debussy (ordinarily rather sparing in this regard) towards his young colleague. Composed in the midst of the Great War, Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914-17) is an homage to friends fallen in combat, including Colonel de Marliave, Marguerite Long's husband. Marguerite Long herself gave the first performance of the cycle in 1919. Ignoring his era but, in the long run, always in the avant-garde and soon downright militant, Ravel imposed Neo-classicism well before Stravinsky in this suite of six pieces that pay tribute to French harpsichordists. The genius is there, but the expression appears more distant. Youth has fled, and the war, along with the death of his beloved mother, seems to have hardened the tone somewhat; Ravel synthesizes himself. Moreover, Le Tombeau de Couperin would be his farewell to an instrument to which this brilliant orchestrator gave so much. However, he returned to the piano at the end of his career, but with the support of the orchestra this time, composing two concertos simultaneously between 1929 and 1931. In the meantime, jazz arrived, and its echoes are noticeable in these two scores. But these elements are only just for show (some see the influence of Gershwin here!!!), like a smokescreen suitable for masking the essential, for, when all is said and done, in nearly forty years, nothing has really changed. The Concerto in G major, full of light and serenity, pays homage one last time to the masters he admired: in this case, Mozart and Saint-Saëns, according to his own admission. But the noisy final movement, like a huge gag, again recalls Chabrier and brings to mind certain passages from Sous les lauriers roses by Déodat de Séverac, another great admirer of the author of Gwendoline. Overall, the Concerto "for both hands" is the work of a Sage whose destiny is fulfilled. Provocation again, so much do the two Concertos differ in tone. The relief of the Concerto in G contrasts with the cries of suffering with which the Concerto in D for the left hand (his most anguished work next to La Valse) comes to an end, and are practically the last important notes he was able to write. What should we believe: light or shadow? And Ravel leaves us with an evasive reply, like Scarbo in Gaspard de la nuit. Album available // Ravel: Complete Orchestral Works by Manuel Rosenthal 🎧 Qobuz bit.ly/3g6JxaQ Tidal bit.ly/3IHqHTW 🎧 Apple Music apple.co/3o8NTT4 Deezer bit.ly/3rYit2X 🎧 Amazon Music amzn.to/3u90GJi Spotify spoti.fi/3L21C8i 🎧 UA-cam Music bit.ly/4dYpt7d
Hmm, very clean, I think too clean for Ravel, not nearly enough pedal. It is, after all, impressionistic music. Noctuelles lacking in magic. Oiseaux and Bargue a bit more dreamy and appropriate, for me. Technically proficient, and you can hear every note. But with this music, I don't think hearing ever note is the point. Gieseking he ain't.
Full Album available // Ravel: Complete Piano Works & Piano Concertos by Jean Doyen
🎧 Qobuz (Hi-Res) bit.ly/4bromLj Tidal (Hi-Res) bit.ly/44s9GsS
🎧 Apple Music (Lossless) apple.co/44Zc4I5 Deezer (Hi-Fi) bit.ly/44zKJMf
🎧 Amazon Music (Hi-Res) amzn.to/4aT6ZDb Spotify (mp3) bit.ly/3UIqusy
🎧 UA-cam Music (mp4) bit.ly/3QwVsRI
❤🔊 Discover our new website: www.classicalmusicreference.com/
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Miroirs, M. 43
00:00 I. Noctuelles. Très léger (2024 Remastered, Paris 1960)
04:32 II. Oiseaux tristes. Très lent (2024 Remastered, Paris 1960)
08:15 III. Une barque sur l'océan. D'un rythme souple (2024 Remastered, Paris 1960)
15:01 IV. Alborada del gracioso. Assez vif (2024 Remastered, Paris 1960)
21:37 V. La vallée des cloches. Très lent (2024 Remastered, Paris 1960)
Piano: Jean Doyen
Recorded in 1960, at Paris
New mastering in 2024 by AB for CMRR
🔊 Join us with your phone on our WhatsApp fanpage (our latest album preview): bit.ly/3Mraw1r
🔊 Download CMRR's recordings in High fidelity audio (QOBUZ): bit.ly/370zcMg
🔊 Follow us on Spotify: spoti.fi/3016eVr
❤ If you enjoy CMRR content, you can join our Patreon page and support our investments in equipment and software for $3 per month.
Thank you very much :) www.patreon.com/cmrr/about
Frédéric Gonet: All of Maurice Ravel's art might be summed up in a few words: Spain, classicism, lyricism, provocation, sensitivity, daring, childhood, wager... Almost all these elements are already present in the Sérénade grotesque-missing from this recording since it was unpublished at the time-which he composed at the age of 18. Unlike many others, Ravel would not have to search for himself; he was immediately himself and, in this short piece, unveiled his favorite themes, with Spain at the top of the list.
Just like the Menuet antique, which followed it, this Sérénade straightaway reveals those influences and immediately belies the generally accepted idea of Ravel as an epigone of Debussy, to whom he owed very little and even less to Wagner (this fact was sufficiently surprising for the period that it is worth stressing). If there is any influence, it is heard immediately, and the words themselves say it all: 'serenade' and 'grotesque'; 'emotion' and 'humorous piece': the model is Emmanuel Chabrier. This influence is so obvious that Ravel would mention it himself in his Esquisse autobiographique concerning his highly famous Pavane pour une infante défunte (Spain again) of 1899, about which, moreover, he would be quite severe.
In those three works, the scene is set; a new century had just begun, and Ravel was taking an interest in pianism. This would result in Jeux d'eau (1901). At that time, Debussy had composed practically nothing of significance for the instrument, and Ravel, in a discreet homage, finally took up piano technique where Liszt had left it. But it is especially the Sonatine (1903-05) that one must look at, for it is doubtless, in its unassuming surroundings, the most intimately Ravelian of his works. The title itself is a provocation, for this is a piece of great technical difficulty, and, above all, it sums up by itself all the themes mentioned at the beginning.
An in-depth analysis reveals the Spanish turns, and here one learns a great deal about Ravel's classicism: whereas that of the Menuet antique illustrates (as the composer himself would emphasize on the subject of the Tombeau de Couperin) that the "homage addressed itself less to Couperin than to French music of the 18th century," the classicism of the Sonatine teaches us that Ravel venerated Mozart. How many riches in those 12 minutes: a concise, precise art, a harmonic language as personal as it is audacious, much tenderness and lyricism but always considerable restraint: Ravel in a nutshell.
Written only a few years later, ***Miroirs*** (1905) provides a violent contrast. This is perhaps his most unexpected work and, in the final analysis, the least personal-as if he had composed the Sonatine for himself and Miroirs for the others. Noctuelles and Oiseaux tristes dazzle with their daring and mystery, but ultimately, Une barque sur l'océan, the only real intrusion into Debussy's universe, is perhaps less successful than Jeux d'eau. Was Ravel aware of this? He attempted an orchestration of it, which he immediately disowned. Alborada del gracioso is the blossoming of the Sérénade grotesque, and the cycle concludes with a piece of bewitching beauty, but whose long cantilena in the middle seems quite foreign to the composer's universe.
Impervious to Debussy and Wagner, Ravel was also indifferent towards certain literary movements of his time, particularly Symbolism. His tastes ran more readily to a 'fantastic Romanticism' as illustrated by Gaspard de la nuit (1908), inspired by three poems by Aloysius Bertrand. Here, Ravel set himself the challenge of writing the most technically difficult work in the entire piano repertoire. This does not make it less personal, even though this universe would be short-lived: other projects in this 'Gothic-Romantic' spirit, lyric works in particular, would unfortunately never come to be.
After a thundering beginning, the Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911) return to something like the intimacy of the Sonatine, with its concision and subtlety, on an ethereal tone so refined that it even elicited a compliment from Debussy (ordinarily rather sparing in this regard) towards his young colleague.
Composed in the midst of the Great War, Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914-17) is an homage to friends fallen in combat, including Colonel de Marliave, Marguerite Long's husband. Marguerite Long herself gave the first performance of the cycle in 1919. Ignoring his era but, in the long run, always in the avant-garde and soon downright militant, Ravel imposed Neo-classicism well before Stravinsky in this suite of six pieces that pay tribute to French harpsichordists. The genius is there, but the expression appears more distant. Youth has fled, and the war, along with the death of his beloved mother, seems to have hardened the tone somewhat; Ravel synthesizes himself. Moreover, Le Tombeau de Couperin would be his farewell to an instrument to which this brilliant orchestrator gave so much.
However, he returned to the piano at the end of his career, but with the support of the orchestra this time, composing two concertos simultaneously between 1929 and 1931. In the meantime, jazz arrived, and its echoes are noticeable in these two scores. But these elements are only just for show (some see the influence of Gershwin here!!!), like a smokescreen suitable for masking the essential, for, when all is said and done, in nearly forty years, nothing has really changed. The Concerto in G major, full of light and serenity, pays homage one last time to the masters he admired: in this case, Mozart and Saint-Saëns, according to his own admission. But the noisy final movement, like a huge gag, again recalls Chabrier and brings to mind certain passages from Sous les lauriers roses by Déodat de Séverac, another great admirer of the author of Gwendoline.
Overall, the Concerto "for both hands" is the work of a Sage whose destiny is fulfilled. Provocation again, so much do the two Concertos differ in tone. The relief of the Concerto in G contrasts with the cries of suffering with which the Concerto in D for the left hand (his most anguished work next to La Valse) comes to an end, and are practically the last important notes he was able to write. What should we believe: light or shadow? And Ravel leaves us with an evasive reply, like Scarbo in Gaspard de la nuit.
Album available // Ravel: Complete Orchestral Works by Manuel Rosenthal
🎧 Qobuz bit.ly/3g6JxaQ Tidal bit.ly/3IHqHTW
🎧 Apple Music apple.co/3o8NTT4 Deezer bit.ly/3rYit2X
🎧 Amazon Music amzn.to/3u90GJi Spotify spoti.fi/3L21C8i
🎧 UA-cam Music bit.ly/4dYpt7d
Maurice Ravel PLAYLIST (references recordings): ua-cam.com/video/AgJ5UJN4QDY/v-deo.html
wonderful music to mark the beginning of the weekend
Brillante und wunderschöne Interpretation dieser impressionistischen und perfekt komponierten Suite im veränderlichen Tempo mit klarem doch elegantem Klang des technisch fehlerlosen Klaviers und mit künstlerisch kontrollierter Dynamik. Die verbesserte Tonqualität ist auch erstaunlich hoch als eine Originalaufnahme von vierundsechzig Jahren vor. Alles ist faszinierend!
Frédéric Gonet: All of Maurice Ravel's art might be summed up in a few words: Spain, classicism, lyricism, provocation, sensitivity, daring, childhood, wager... Almost all these elements are already present in the Sérénade grotesque-missing from this recording since it was unpublished at the time-which he composed at the age of 18. Unlike many others, Ravel would not have to search for himself; he was immediately himself and, in this short piece, unveiled his favorite themes, with Spain at the top of the list.
Just like the Menuet antique, which followed it, this Sérénade straightaway reveals those influences and immediately belies the generally accepted idea of Ravel as an epigone of Debussy, to whom he owed very little and even less to Wagner (this fact was sufficiently surprising for the period that it is worth stressing). If there is any influence, it is heard immediately, and the words themselves say it all: 'serenade' and 'grotesque'; 'emotion' and 'humorous piece': the model is Emmanuel Chabrier. This influence is so obvious that Ravel would mention it himself in his Esquisse autobiographique concerning his highly famous Pavane pour une infante défunte (Spain again) of 1899, about which, moreover, he would be quite severe.
In those three works, the scene is set; a new century had just begun, and Ravel was taking an interest in pianism. This would result in Jeux d'eau (1901). At that time, Debussy had composed practically nothing of significance for the instrument, and Ravel, in a discreet homage, finally took up piano technique where Liszt had left it. But it is especially the Sonatine (1903-05) that one must look at, for it is doubtless, in its unassuming surroundings, the most intimately Ravelian of his works. The title itself is a provocation, for this is a piece of great technical difficulty, and, above all, it sums up by itself all the themes mentioned at the beginning.
An in-depth analysis reveals the Spanish turns, and here one learns a great deal about Ravel's classicism: whereas that of the Menuet antique illustrates (as the composer himself would emphasize on the subject of the Tombeau de Couperin) that the "homage addressed itself less to Couperin than to French music of the 18th century," the classicism of the Sonatine teaches us that Ravel venerated Mozart. How many riches in those 12 minutes: a concise, precise art, a harmonic language as personal as it is audacious, much tenderness and lyricism but always considerable restraint: Ravel in a nutshell.
Written only a few years later, ***Miroirs*** (1905) provides a violent contrast. This is perhaps his most unexpected work and, in the final analysis, the least personal-as if he had composed the Sonatine for himself and Miroirs for the others. Noctuelles and Oiseaux tristes dazzle with their daring and mystery, but ultimately, Une barque sur l'océan, the only real intrusion into Debussy's universe, is perhaps less successful than Jeux d'eau. Was Ravel aware of this? He attempted an orchestration of it, which he immediately disowned. Alborada del gracioso is the blossoming of the Sérénade grotesque, and the cycle concludes with a piece of bewitching beauty, but whose long cantilena in the middle seems quite foreign to the composer's universe.
Impervious to Debussy and Wagner, Ravel was also indifferent towards certain literary movements of his time, particularly Symbolism. His tastes ran more readily to a 'fantastic Romanticism' as illustrated by Gaspard de la nuit (1908), inspired by three poems by Aloysius Bertrand. Here, Ravel set himself the challenge of writing the most technically difficult work in the entire piano repertoire. This does not make it less personal, even though this universe would be short-lived: other projects in this 'Gothic-Romantic' spirit, lyric works in particular, would unfortunately never come to be.
After a thundering beginning, the Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911) return to something like the intimacy of the Sonatine, with its concision and subtlety, on an ethereal tone so refined that it even elicited a compliment from Debussy (ordinarily rather sparing in this regard) towards his young colleague.
Composed in the midst of the Great War, Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914-17) is an homage to friends fallen in combat, including Colonel de Marliave, Marguerite Long's husband. Marguerite Long herself gave the first performance of the cycle in 1919. Ignoring his era but, in the long run, always in the avant-garde and soon downright militant, Ravel imposed Neo-classicism well before Stravinsky in this suite of six pieces that pay tribute to French harpsichordists. The genius is there, but the expression appears more distant. Youth has fled, and the war, along with the death of his beloved mother, seems to have hardened the tone somewhat; Ravel synthesizes himself. Moreover, Le Tombeau de Couperin would be his farewell to an instrument to which this brilliant orchestrator gave so much.
However, he returned to the piano at the end of his career, but with the support of the orchestra this time, composing two concertos simultaneously between 1929 and 1931. In the meantime, jazz arrived, and its echoes are noticeable in these two scores. But these elements are only just for show (some see the influence of Gershwin here!!!), like a smokescreen suitable for masking the essential, for, when all is said and done, in nearly forty years, nothing has really changed. The Concerto in G major, full of light and serenity, pays homage one last time to the masters he admired: in this case, Mozart and Saint-Saëns, according to his own admission. But the noisy final movement, like a huge gag, again recalls Chabrier and brings to mind certain passages from Sous les lauriers roses by Déodat de Séverac, another great admirer of the author of Gwendoline.
Overall, the Concerto "for both hands" is the work of a Sage whose destiny is fulfilled. Provocation again, so much do the two Concertos differ in tone. The relief of the Concerto in G contrasts with the cries of suffering with which the Concerto in D for the left hand (his most anguished work next to La Valse) comes to an end, and are practically the last important notes he was able to write. What should we believe: light or shadow? And Ravel leaves us with an evasive reply, like Scarbo in Gaspard de la nuit.
Album available // Ravel: Complete Orchestral Works by Manuel Rosenthal
🎧 Qobuz bit.ly/3g6JxaQ Tidal bit.ly/3IHqHTW
🎧 Apple Music apple.co/3o8NTT4 Deezer bit.ly/3rYit2X
🎧 Amazon Music amzn.to/3u90GJi Spotify spoti.fi/3L21C8i
🎧 UA-cam Music bit.ly/4dYpt7d
Un grand merci pour ce magnifique cadeau. Je n'avais jamais entendu parler de cet artiste avant d'écouter cet enregistrement.
Beautiful ❤❤❤
An outstanding performance of these masterly beautiful works. Thank you !
What software do you use for making the album covers?
❤
Did Doyen know Ravel personally?
He was a pupil of Marguerite Long, a friend of Ravel's, so it's possible that introductions may have taken place :)
@@classicalmusicreference One would think. Kind of like Liszt surely met Beethoven.
Hmm, very clean, I think too clean for Ravel, not nearly enough pedal. It is, after all, impressionistic music. Noctuelles lacking in magic. Oiseaux and Bargue a bit more dreamy and appropriate, for me. Technically proficient, and you can hear every note. But with this music, I don't think hearing ever note is the point. Gieseking he ain't.