Ravel

[Tony Halstead]

...and I thought I was the only Bolerophobe on these boards. Favourite works - yes loads but surely Daphnis and Mother Goose ride high in Orchestral works and Sonatine for piano, then Intro & Allegro and the String Quartet are lovely chamber works, then vocally Scheherazade and the how do they do it with one hand PC for LH! As the late Peter Sarstedt said ... Loveliness goes on and on....

I think I am right in saying that Ravel famously said:
" I have composed only one masterpiece... unfortunately there is no music in it!"

[Tony Halstead]

Caught the unspeakably dreadful and dreary Immerseel Bolero much the worst performance of it I have ever heard .

No wonder I could not abide his Symphonie fantastique he drains all passion out of anything .

Sorry but I haven't heard that Immerseel recording... but, is it possible that JVI tried (and failed) to perform Bolero at the composer's very slow metronome speed?
I heard a very amusing 'Toscanini story' re. Ravel's Bolero: when Ravel berated Toscanini for playing Bolero " too fast" Toscanini said to him:
" monsieur, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND YOUR OWN MUSIC!"

[BBMmk2]

...and I thought I was the only Bolerophobe on these boards. Favourite works - yes loads but surely Daphnis and Mother Goose ride high in Orchestral works and Sonatine for piano, then Intro & Allegro and the String Quartet are lovely chamber works, then vocally Scheherazade and the how do they do it with one hand PC for LH! As the late Peter Sarstedt said ... Loveliness goes on and on....

Indeed! I think you may find a few other Forumistas who don't like Bolero.

[Bryn]

Sorry but I haven't heard that Immerseel recording... but, is it possible that JVI tried (and failed) to perform Bolero at the composer's very slow metronome speed?

Judge for yourself:

The composer's recording can be found here. Immerseel's seems much faster from the timings, but that's because it is trimmed. You only get the first 10 minutes. Immerseel actually takes more than a minute longer than the composer to get to the end.

[pastoralguy]

Oddly, I always SAY I dislike Bolero but when I chance upon it on the radio I usually get caught up and end up enjoying it.

[Daniel]

Don't forget this wonderful 24/96 set, which I revelled in last spring (this music seems especially apt to the freshest, songfullest, season of life and hope), listening to nothing else (apart from Mozart Piano Concertos with Cristofori)) for weeks. For me it really is, at last, a worthy modern successor to the various legends of Cluytens, Reiner and perhaps especially Paray. Lionel Bringuier shapes the music so sensuously and individually, with many fresh interpretative ideas. The Zurich Tonhalle-Romande seem devoted to him, bar-to-bar in the sensitivity of their response.

http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/ravel-complete-orchestral-works-yuja-wang-ray-chen-tonhalle-orchester-zurich-lionel-bringuier/0002894795528

Interesting, I listened to the Ravel G major concerto with Yuja Wang from that set (having heard the slow movt on COTW) and Bringuier's accompaniment is indeed lovely, conductors can get a bit cloying in that movt I find, but none of that with Monsieur B.

For me the Ravel spell just gets stronger, the intricate and ecstatic in the music seem to wield an ever more potent effect on me. And the fact that he affects to stay away from the emotional hurly burly just seems to intensify the emotional content of the music.
I'd add vaguely that for me French music seems often infused with a certain ecstasy, Faure, Messiaen, Debussy, Dutilleux, Boulez e.g, one could add Berlioz, Rameau, Lully, Couperin perhaps. A quality/mirage that I for one am most grateful for.

Great pics, Cali!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

For me the Ravel spell just gets stronger,

the intricate and ecstatic in the music seem to wield an ever more potent effect on me.

And the fact that he affects to stay away from the emotional hurly burly just seems to intensify the emotional content of the music.

I'd add vaguely that for me French music seems often infused with a certain ecstasy, Faure, Messiaen, Debussy, Dutilleux, Boulez e.g, one could add Berlioz, Rameau, Lully, Couperin perhaps. A quality/mirage that I for one am most grateful for.

I think that Boulez himself best described what I think you mean by this, Daniel, when he wrote of Artaud:

I can find in his writings the fundamental preoccupations of contemporary music. To have seen him and heard him speaking his own texts, accompanying them with cries, noises, rhythms, showed us... in short, how to organize delirium. ... More and more, I imagine, to make it effective, we will have to take delirium and yes, organize it.

[ahinton]

Ravel (along with Roussel) was among my first musical experiences; indeed, the first time I ever recall hearing the violin being played was in Ravel's Piano Trio, with which I was utterly entranced, as I still am today, it being one of the major works for the medium in any age.

[Daniel]

I think that Boulez himself best described what I think you mean by this, Daniel, when he wrote of Artaud:

I can find in his writings the fundamental preoccupations of contemporary music. To have seen him and heard him speaking his own texts, accompanying them with cries, noises, rhythms, showed us... in short, how to organize delirium. ... More and more, I imagine, to make it effective, we will have to take delirium and yes, organize it.

A brilliant quote, thanks very much indeed!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A brilliant quote, thanks very much indeed!

(Over a year on, and I still feel that Boulez' death has robbed us of one of the most important Musicians - and one of the liveliest Musical thinkers - of any age.)

[Serial_Apologist]

Monday 22 - Friday 26 March

This does not appear to be a repeat of the above, which I don't remember at all having heard - or am I wrong? I don't like the over-emphasis sometimes given to the biographical at the expense of the music that has nudged its way into this feature, but in Ravel's case this might prove something of a bonus in considering a figure whose music is far more familiar than his rather inscrutable personality, unlike say Stravinsky's or Debussy's.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01zh1kf

It's on iplayer, so must be a repeat, though not stated as such in RT.

[Nick Armstrong]

For me the Ravel spell just gets stronger, the intricate and ecstatic in the music seem to wield an ever more potent effect on me. And the fact that he affects to stay away from the emotional hurly burly just seems to intensify the emotional content of the music.

Couldn’t agree more

(Except, weirdly, the Introduction & Allegro, as mentioned recently on the BAL thread)