BaL 25.11.23 - Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin

[MickyD]

So glad the concert proved so good! Pity about the lack of the period piano, though.

[Maclintick]

That is a very interesting question that goes to the heart of the ambiguity of the piece . The grave of Couperin - dead and buried or part of a continuous French musical tradition that Ravel places himself in ? And the parallel homage to his dead friends - dead but also immortal if you believe the standard French war memorial . To convey all that in a performance is perhaps beyond what fingers , mind and heart can achieve. One thing : it doesn’t work sentimentalising it but a cold , dry performance doesn’t work either.

Caught up with this BAL late in the day, but I think Perianes achieves that balance, as does, for instance, Chamayou in his excellent almost-complete set, with a little extra fraîcheur gauloise compared to JP. The extracts featuring Grosvenor and Lortie were compelling. I sympathise with those lamenting the non-inclusion of Thibaudet, Collard, Rogé, François & others, but also with the gargantuan task of selection faced by Flora Willson, who made a pretty good fist of it overall, still finding time to introduce the piano roll of disputed provenance, for instance, of which I was previously unaware.

One thought which occurred was whether the personalities of Ravel's fallen dedicatees were reflected in the various movements, unconsciously paralleling Elgar's Enigma ? I've ordered Roger Nichols' biog of the composer which may elucidate this and much else, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't known to fellow-forumites, were it to be the case...

Slightly discomfited to learn that Flora Willson's repeated description of her ideal performance style in this piece "natty", echoed by Hannah French in her back-announcement for RR Extra, along with "nattyness" (sic) refers in the modern vernacular to the goal of bodybuilders who strive to attain perfection without recourse to performance-enhancing drugs. I sincerely hope Ms Willson wasn't referencing this usage of the term !

[duncan]

Slightly discomfited to learn that Flora Willson's repeated description of her ideal performance style in this piece "natty", echoed by Hannah French in her back-announcement for RR Extra, along with "nattyness" (sic) refers in the modern vernacular to the goal of bodybuilders who strive to attain perfection without recourse to performance-enhancing drugs. I sincerely hope Ms Willson wasn't referencing this usage of the term !

I assumed she was using natty in the Jamaican sense meaning Rastafarian.

[Darloboy]

Bit late to the discussion but I'll just add that Lortie, which came close to being first choice this time, was first choice when the programme last covered this work - Dermot Clinch in May 2008

[Nick Armstrong]

Bit late to the discussion but I'll just add that Lortie, which came close to being first choice this time, was first choice when the programme last covered this work - Dermot Clinch in May 2008

Late here too; interesting discussion here, especially on the nature/influence of the dedications.

I must say, the Perianes reading captured my attention at once, more than the other illustrations played - I’m glad to have been alerted to it.

[Maclintick]

Late here too; interesting discussion here, especially on the nature/influence of the dedications.

Roger Nichols’ biog of the composer landed on the doormat yesterday - excellent next-day service from Hive. It seems that the Forlane was written in 1914, but that the remainder of the composition lay in gestation during the composer’s military service, with the dedications added just before publication by Durand at the end of the war, Ravel in a state of nervous exhaustion.