Ravel's Bolero

[Pulcinella]

Has anyone mentioned Ansermet yet? It was part of his famous LP with La Valse and Honegger's Pacific 231

Only in passing: in #36 (as one of the recordings I have) and #73 (as one of the five in the Deezer compilation, which I must get round to listening to!).
The Wiki article (link given in #38) says that he was originally scheduled to conduct the premiere.

PS: Ansermet mentioned in #90 too, which was posted while I was writing this!

[Master Jacques]

As my contribution to the recorded examples: Leibowitz is (surprisingly for so pedagogical a chef) fun, he allows the soloists great latitude, also longitude. Memory of Lamoureux concerts in the 60s tells me Dervaux did similar. As to Ansermet: as in many works, it took a rigid mathematician to permit such rubato.

Thank you, Alain, I must catch up with Leibowitz, an under-rated conductor (at least here in England) who is indeed often fun in his own way.

We'll agree to differ on Flanner, whose smart, snide wisecracking (with its poisonous edge) alienates me. And thank you for the link HighlandDougie - which I enjoyed. I see she was a friend of Gertrude Stein, so she can't have been all bad!

[Alain Maréchal]

Thank you, Alain, I must catch up with Leibowitz, an under-rated conductor (at least here in England) who is indeed often fun in his own way.

We'll agree to differ on Flanner, whose smart, snide wisecracking (with its poisonous edge) alienates me. And thank you for the link HighlandDougie - which I enjoyed. I see she was a friend of Gertrude Stein, so she can't have been all bad!

I'm sure you could find a copy of "Paris was Yesterday", and I recommend it. She had great style, of which I'm sure you must be aware often passed for great substance in the city of light*. TNY archive is available online, so you could go to the source. If you need an example of her perception, read her obituary of Edith Wharton. Much as I admire EW as a writer, I admit that Flanner skewered that mountain of contradictions very neatly, and without the benefit of her sealed correspondence.

* the syntax seems all wrong there, but it defeated me. My excuse, its been over 40 here today, and still about 30 and humid at midnight.

[jayne lee wilson]

Thank you, Alain, I must catch up with Leibowitz, an under-rated conductor (at least here in England) who is indeed often fun in his own way.

We'll agree to differ on Flanner, whose smart, snide wisecracking (with its poisonous edge) alienates me. And thank you for the link HighlandDougie - which I enjoyed. I see she was a friend of Gertrude Stein, so she can't have been all bad!

Leibowitz, Jacques...?

Many of Rene Leibowitz' best recordings appeared originally on Readers' Digest Records and were later transferred to some marvellous-sounding Chesky CDs; these included his RPO Beethoven Cycle, something of a HIPPs-avant-la-lettre of great speed, verve and style, if a little short on repeats. Roger Norrington is an admirer of this set...

With Kenneth G. Wilkinson at the controls (and 20x128 ADC for the Chesky CDs) it sounds as wonderful as you might expect.
So I think there's more to Rene Leibowitz than "fun"....

[Bryn]

In 2014?
The article is dated 3 June 2014.

But first publiehed in 2010 (see the note at the end of the item).

[jayne lee wilson]

Janet Flanner, NY, 1932...
"a bolero is apparently a long, black crepe cape with a train the full length of a hall carpet, worn exclusively when walking to funerals".

The more I visualise this, the more intriguing sense it makes as a Ballet.

Imagine a tall Spanish Lady, with black lace veil and cape, and the train of her ensemble flowing out behind her, along the stone floor of the vast shadowy cathedral aisle. We view her from the rear, middle-distance. She walks slowly in single steps. We think she is attending a funeral - for a lost husband perhaps. Mourners are glimpsed around her, but seeming slightly incorporeal themselves...if these are friends & family, they seem scarcely consoling...

Ravel's Bolero is the funeral music. So her steps are in strictly in time but only one step at a time, pausing at the end of each phrase, then moving with the next one. Disturbing faces appear alongside her (are they happy or sad?) as instruments enter, disappear again, she seems to know them... is fearful of them....for they are really her memories...
...The atmosphere grows darker with the orchestral density, more intense. The other mourners seem to fade into the surrounding dark. At the dramatic key-change, Death reveals itself as the thing she is to marry, it is her own funeral, and the final climax is a mockingly triumphant, luridly-dressed and lit, demonically grinning Dance of Death; and the skeletal collapse of a Life.

[Pulcinella]

Janet Flanner, NY, 1932...
"a bolero is apparently a long, black crepe cape with a train the full length of a hall carpet, worn exclusively when walking to funerals".

The more I visualise this, the more intriguing sense it makes as a Ballet.

Imagine a tall Spanish Lady, with black lace veil and cape, and the train of her ensemble flowing out behind her, along the stone floor of the vast shadowy cathedral aisle. We view her from the rear, middle-distance. She walks slowly in single steps. We think she is attending a funeral - for a lost husband perhaps. Mourners are glimpsed around her, but seeming slightly incorporeal themselves...if these are friends & family, they seem scarcely consoling...

Ravel's Bolero is the funeral music. So her steps are in strictly in time but only one step at a time, pausing at the end of each phrase, then moving with the next one. Disturbing faces appear alongside her (are they happy or sad?) as instruments enter, disappear again, she seems to know them... is fearful of them....for they are really her memories...
...The atmosphere grows darker with the orchestral density, more intense. The other mourners seem to fade into the surrounding dark. At the dramatic key-change, Death reveals itself as the thing she is to marry, it is her own funeral, and the final climax is a mockingly triumphant, luridly-dressed and lit, demonically grinning Dance of Death; and the skeletal collapse of a Life.

I'd certainly buy a ticket to see that, jayne.

[Braunschlag]

Leibowitz, Jacques...?

Many of Rene Leibowitz' best recordings appeared originally on Readers' Digest Records and were later transferred to some marvellous-sounding Chesky CDs; these included his RPO Beethoven Cycle, something of a HIPPs-avant-la-lettre of great speed, verve and style, if a little short on repeats. Roger Norrington is an admirer of this set...

With Kenneth G. Wilkinson at the controls (and 20x128 ADC for the Chesky CDs) it sounds as wonderful as you might expect.
So I think there's more to Rene Leibowitz than "fun"....

My go to Beethoven cycle, a very zippy set indeed. Perhaps let down by the singer at the first entry in No.9 but that’s a minor quibble. All Leibowitz Chesky’s are treasures indeed. His Bolero is worth catching.
For fans of black plastic you might like this - https://www.discogs.com/Ravel-Nether...elease/4310089

It has been cut in reverse so plays backwards. The blurb says it’s to overcome that side end distortion.
I have it and it works well, fine rendition from Carlo Rizzi to boot.
An LP to get flat earth tongues wagging

[cloughie]

My go to Beethoven cycle, a very zippy set indeed. Perhaps let down by the singer at the first entry in No.9 but that’s a minor quibble. All Leibowitz Chesky’s are treasures indeed. His Bolero is worth catching.
For fans of black plastic you might like this - https://www.discogs.com/Ravel-Nether...elease/4310089

It has been cut in reverse so plays backwards. The blurb says it’s to overcome that side end distortion.
I have it and it works well, fine rendition from Carlo Rizzi to boot.
An LP to get flat earth tongues wagging

...and we’ve all got turntables with a reverse gear? Or is it Levar:Orelob?

[Braunschlag]

...and we’ve all got turntables with a reverse gear? Or is it Levar:Orelob?

Nah! it’s cut to play in reverse, , aL eslaV on side two.

[Alain Maréchal]

So I think there's more to Rene Leibowitz than "fun"....

I think, Jayne, that in this case Maître J. and I are in agreement with each other and you about Leibowitz's qualities. The "fun" was the leeway he allowed in his recording of Bolero. Elsewhere he was a devotee of the score - I believe that superb Beethoven cycle was the first to attempt the metronome markings, and righted some errors in the parts (are there some unusual turns and trills in the Scherzo of No. 7 which had traditionally been "corrected"?) - and a disciple of Schoenberg. I regret I never saw him conduct, but I play his recording of La Valse often, partly because it recaptures the sound of a French orchestra of the 50s/60s so vividly, and for me is instant nostalgia.* Like Ansermet he seemed to prepare a performance with strict discipline and then allowed considerable interpretative flexibility.

* When the Orchestre de Paris was formed, Munch tried to keep that sound and refine it. Successive principal conductors have done their utmost to turn them into an imitation of the Berlin Philharmonic, unsuccessfully, but by striving for the letter have killed the spirit (I'm not sure if that metaphor is appropriate). Occasional felicities of phrasing remain. Oddly the OdP's most "French" sounding recording is conducted by von Karajan - that utterly beguiling LP which includes Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin.

[Alain Maréchal]

For fans of black plastic you might like this - https://www.discogs.com/Ravel-Nether...elease/4310089

It has been cut in reverse so plays backwards. The blurb says it’s to overcome that side end distortion.
I have it and it works well, fine rendition from Carlo Rizzi to boot.
An LP to get flat earth tongues wagging

I am confused. By "backwards" is it meant that the start of the groove is at the inner part of the disc and scrolls out to the edge? That would not be "Backwards", I think. I would only call it "backwards" if the turntable had to revolve anticlockwise. (mine cannot, unless there is a clever way of reversing it I have not yet discovered ), or of course if the music was actually sounding in reverse.

[Master Jacques]

Janet Flanner, NY, 1932...
"a bolero is apparently a long, black crepe cape with a train the full length of a hall carpet, worn exclusively when walking to funerals".

The more I visualise this, the more intriguing sense it makes as a Ballet.

Imagine a tall Spanish Lady, with black lace veil and cape, and the train of her ensemble flowing out behind her, along the stone floor of the vast shadowy cathedral aisle. We view her from the rear, middle-distance. She walks slowly in single steps. We think she is attending a funeral - for a lost husband perhaps. Mourners are glimpsed around her, but seeming slightly incorporeal themselves...if these are friends & family, they seem scarcely consoling...

Ravel's Bolero is the funeral music. So her steps are in strictly in time but only one step at a time, pausing at the end of each phrase, then moving with the next one. Disturbing faces appear alongside her (are they happy or sad?) as instruments enter, disappear again, she seems to know them... is fearful of them....for they are really her memories...
...The atmosphere grows darker with the orchestral density, more intense. The other mourners seem to fade into the surrounding dark. At the dramatic key-change, Death reveals itself as the thing she is to marry, it is her own funeral, and the final climax is a mockingly triumphant, luridly-dressed and lit, demonically grinning Dance of Death; and the skeletal collapse of a Life.

What a wonderfully Mahlerian vision, Jayne! My own visions tend to centre on (I think the composer's own story, but I'm open to correction) the idea of a group of sweating soldiers pushing a huge gun over the sun-soaked plain - eventually they join up with the army, and the climax comes with the gun blasting the opposing army to smithereens.

[Master Jacques]

I think, Jayne, that in this case Maître J. and I are in agreement with each other and you about Leibowitz's qualities.

Absolutely! As with Norrington, the "fun" comes when he suddenly (often quirkily) breaks free of the taut, academic straightjacket we often feel. His recording of Satie's Socrate (a "desert island" recording of mine) is a good case in point. In my opinion, nobody else has got anything like so close to the heart of that work. I must get hold of his Bolero, in the light of Alain's comments.

[Master Jacques]

Having just listened to the Preiser transfer of Leibowitz's mono set with the Radio-Symphonie-Orchester, Paris (second of his three recordings??) I second Alain's feelings about it - mesmerising, rock-solid yet full of interesting lateral thinking and quirky freedoms. The "full woodwind choir" section is specially frightening, sounding like a howl of vengeful banshees. Closer I think to Jayne's funeral vision than my big gun!

A tremendous performance. His stereo (third) recording is available on Chesky, I see.