BaL 14.03.20 - Ravel: String Quartet in F major

[Joseph K]

Happy birthday Ravel...

[BBMmk2]

I have the Ad Libitum recording, I’m sure I have others, but at the top of my head I can’t think of any, at the moment.

[Pulcinella]

Quartetto Italiano (on cassette) in my youth; on CD, Melos, Belcea, and Britten (the latter in the inspired RVW/Ravel coupling already mentioned).
Time for a (re)listen with the score (Dover edition, also paired with the Debussy).

[pastoralguy]

When did it change from "suggests a preferred recording"? A favourite is not the same thing. I might encourage hearing my favourite recording, but would not suggest you buy it.

My favourite recording of Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony is Sir Alexander Gibson conducting the Scottish National Orchestra in 1976. However, I doubt it would get far in a BaL context!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I hope this isn't the last ever BaL. There's no mention of one on 21st March. I'd have thought they could have squeezed in The Cunning Little Vixen, or the Brahms Piano Quintet, both of which have been cut from recent programmes.

[visualnickmos]

I hope this isn't the last ever BaL. There's no mention of one on 21st March. I'd have thought they could have squeezed in The Cunning Little Vixen, or the Brahms Piano Quintet, both of which have been cut from recent programmes.

Nothing would surprise me, now, in terms of Radio 3. Tabloid radio at its very best !

[Pulcinella]

I hope this isn't the last ever BaL. There's no mention of one on 21st March. I'd have thought they could have squeezed in The Cunning Little Vixen, or the Brahms Piano Quintet, both of which have been cut from recent programmes.

Perhaps it's just been put in quarantine for 14 days?

[verismissimo]

I realise that I've been meaning to acquire the recording by the Quatuor Ebene for ten years or so. So that's now done.

I'll be listening to it, plus the Lindsays (1994), the Juilliards (1973) and two nla recordings (it seems) - the Vlach (1963) and the Via Nova (1971).

Of my five, the first was the Vlachs, which still sounds intimate, warm, a total delight. The Lindsays also are outstanding. And I much enjoy the brilliant Ebenes, which postman brought yesterday.

Thinking about when I first heard Ravel's quartet: it was in a series of music appreciation classes at school - those were the days - around 1959-60. I was bowled over by it. The classes were given by Peter Fletcher, who later ran youth music in Leicestershire, then London, before going to Cardiff. An inspiring teacher.

[ardcarp]

Ravel's quartet always transports me to a sunny afternoon on a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean.

It transports me to heaven. Just worried BAL might wreck it. I might not listen.

[LMcD]

It transports me to heaven. Just worried BAL might wreck it. I might not listen.

I'm not transported quite as far (see #2)! I shan't be listening.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Perhaps it's just been put in quarantine for 14 days?

[ardcarp]

Ah! Self-isolation for Andrew....

[verismissimo]

I hope this isn't the last ever BaL. There's no mention of one on 21st March. I'd have thought they could have squeezed in The Cunning Little Vixen, or the Brahms Piano Quintet, both of which have been cut from recent programmes.

It looks as though we are to get Mozart's Mass K427, though exactly when is not clear. Apparently not the end of the world as we know it.

[mikealdren]

Ah! Self-isolation for Andrew....

He'll drive himself mad!

[kernelbogey]

Always something mysterious and magical about this piece - can't think why I haven't got a recording... until now: the Ebenes are now on their way. The review helped me make sense of the structure in a new way.