What Classical Music Are You listening to Now? III

[cloughie]

I have been trying to find more information about this piano version. That coming with the boxed set merely refers to it as the "first version for piano (1910)". The Internet is not much help, either. Is it a case of Ravel having first prepared this version for piano, then setting about orchestrating it, or is it a reduction prepared for ballet rehearsal purposes, as has been suggested elsewhere? I am tempted to think the former to be the more likely case.

Yes Bryn - a strange one and as it is actually his own arrangement very odd that it has not been performed/recorded more over the years.

[Bryn]

Yes Bryn - a strange one and as it is actually his own arrangement very odd that it has not been performed/recorded more over the years.

A double back-translation (to English via French and Japanese) in an Amazon customer review of the original CD release has this:

Inside the jacket “As concerns the choral part that is also included in this version, thanks to the technology of re-recording, we were able to maintain its bewitting presence with the piano. “re-recording” may be “overdubbing” by the way.This means that some multiple recordings are used in the choral part. That said, I don't know where to adopt multiple recordings in my dagna (I don't have to know if you don't have any trouble in the first direction).

[Pulcinella]

A double back-translation (to English via French and Japanese) in an Amazon customer review of the original CD release has this:

My Roger Nichols book on Ravel arrived yesterday.
If he has anything to say that's a little more comprehensible than this, I'll let you know!


PS: There's an odd grammatical error in Nichols' booklet notes for the complete set.
Page 15 has:

Sadly, Wittgenstein insisted on make major changes to the score and, .....

All the odder as, as far as I can tell, the French and German translations are OK, and you might have thought that one of those translators would have reported the error!
The sense should (I think) be: Wittgenstein insisted on Ravel making..... (or insisted that Ravel make, if you like that construction!).

[Stanfordian]

Nathalie Manfrino – ‘French Heroines’
Airs d'opéras français – Gounod, Massenet, Delibes, Bizet, Debussy, Lalo & Chausson
Nathalie Manfrino (soprano)
Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo / Emmanuel Villaume
Recorded 2007 Auditorium Rainier III, Monte-Carlo, Monaco
Decca

Saint-Saëns – ‘Sonates & Trio’ – Capuçon, Moreau & Chamayou
Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 92
Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 75
Cello Sonata No. 1 in C minor, Op. 32
Renaud Capuçon (violin)
Edgar Moreau (cello)
Bertrand Chamayou (piano)
Recorded July 2020, Studio, Cité de la Musique et de la Danse, Soissons, France
Erato (Warner Classics), CD new release

[Pulcinella]

I have been trying to find more information about this piano version. That coming with the boxed set merely refers to it as the "first version for piano (1910)". The Internet is not much help, either. Is it a case of Ravel having first prepared this version for piano, then setting about orchestrating it, or is it a reduction prepared for ballet rehearsal purposes, as has been suggested elsewhere? I am tempted to think the former to be the more likely case.

I think your temptation is correct!
From a quick flick through Nichols' book, it would appear that Ravel wrote the piano version first, finishing it on 1 May 1910, and by 7 May (four days after writing a letter about the contract) he was busy orchestrating it.
By the time Durand published it, in 1912, there were some revisions (so I guess that that counts as the second version for piano), though a small number of plate-printed advance copies were produced in 1910.

[BBMmk2]

A slightly belated tribute, by a couple of days, to Mariss Jansons
In Memoriam

Beethoven
Symphony No.9 in D minor, Op.125 ‘Choral’
Krassimira Stoyanova (soprano)
Lioba Braun (contralto)
Michael Schade (tenor)
Michael Villa (bass)
Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Mariss Jansons

Brahms
Symphony No.2 in D major, Op.73
Symphony No.3 in F major, Op.90
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Mariss Jansons.

[Joseph K]

Dutilleux - Tout un monde lointain, from aforementioned boxed set.

[BBMmk2]

A slightly belated tribute, by a couple of days, to Mariss Jansons
In Memoriam

Beethoven
Symphony No.9 in D minor, Op.125 ‘Choral’
Krassimira Stoyanova (soprano)
Lioba Braun (contralto)
Michael Schade (tenor)
Michael Villa (bass)
Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Mariss Jansons

Brahms
Symphony No.2 in D major, Op.73
Symphony No.3 in F major, Op.90
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Mariss Jansons.

Following on

Bruckner
Symphony No.7 in E minor
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Mariss Jansons

[Jonathan]

Recently received the latest CD by Paul Wee - Thalberg L'Art du chant applique au piano. It's absolutely brilliant.

[Pulcinella]

Prokofiev

A 2CD EMI collection

Scythian Suite (CBSO/Rattle)
Piano concerto 1 (Argerich/Montreal SO/Dutoit)
Violin concerto 1 (Zimmermann/Berlin Phil/Maazel)
Visions fugitives (Béroff)
Symphony 1 (Philharmonia/Kurtz)
Cello concerto (Starker/Philharmonia/Susskind)
Sinfonietta (Philharmonia/Muti)
Overture on Hebrew themes (Béroff/Portal/Parrenin Quartet)

[Joseph K]

Maltempo playing Scriabin 10.

SUCH an incredible work, this performance does full justice to it... positively ravishing.

[Richard Barrett]

Maltempo playing Scriabin 10.

Those are wonderful performances, at least the ones I've heard, starting indeed with no.10 of course (closely followed by no.7). I'm reminded to listen to the rest of them tomorrow if I have time.

[Joseph K]

Those are wonderful performances, at least the ones I've heard, starting indeed with no.10 of course (closely followed by no.7). I'm reminded to listen to the rest of them tomorrow if I have time.

I have the double-CD set but admit: I haven't yet got round to listening to the earlier sonatas.

[Stanfordian]

Sandrine Piau - ‘Si j'ai aimé…’
Mélodies from Saint-Saëns, Bordes, Berlioz, Vierne, Duparc, Guilmant, Martini
Orchestral pieces from Pierné, Duparc, Massenet, Godard
Sandrine Piau (soprano)
Le Concert de la Loge / Julien Chauvin (violin / direction)
Recorded 2018 Arsenal-Cité Musicale de Metz, France
Alpha Classics CD

Ravel
Daphnis et Chloé, Suites No’s 1 & 2
La Valse
Le Tombeau de Couperin
Philharmonische Chor München
Münchner Philharmoniker / Sergiu Celibidache
Recorded live, 1987 Philharmonie (Daphnis); 1979 (La Valse);
1984 (Tombeau), Herkulessaal, Munich
Münchner Philharmoniker, own label CD

[BBMmk2]

Stan, that Ravel looks interesting!

Mahler
Symphony No.5 in C# minor
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Mariss Jansons