Ravel and His World

[Nick Armstrong]

Anyone been listening?

Vinteuil seemed to be thirsting for this last week as an antidote to George Lloyd...

I haven't caught the entirety of the programmes so far but have been interested by what I heard.

"Donald Macleod explores Ravel's life and music in context with his friends in the artistic group Les Apaches. As well as Ravel, there is music by Maurice Delage, Déodat de Séverac and Florent Schmitt" says the blurb...

... and Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht and Paul Ladmirault too.

I have to say that what I've heard of Inghelbrecht makes him just as open to allegations of mediocrity as any British composer (referring back to the odd brickbat during 'British month' )

On the other hand, I liked what I heard of the Breton Paul Ladmirault: the Prelude to Act 2 of his opera "Myrdhin" sounded good and I shall listen again.

Some good narrative by DMcL too - e.g. the origin of the name 'Les Apaches'... the owner of one of those newspaper kiosks in Paris, seeing these twenty-something composers walking in a pack down the street and calling 'There they go, the apaches...!'

I shall go out of my way to catch the rest of these

[Serial_Apologist]

Ooh yes Caliban!

I posted on the Neglected French composers thread I started a few weeks ago, suspecting that the general air of so what towards French 20th century music would mean avoidance of this week's COTW.

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?8481-Neglected-20th-Century-French-composers&p=308852#post308852

So far these programmes have lived up to my highest expectations, with delightful pieces possibly heard for the first time ever on R3 (if not this country) by Inghelbrecht, de Severac, and Ladmirault, amongst others, and information about Delage which conflicted with what one had previously been told, namely that he could not in fact read scores, but could reproduce their music faithfully by ear. A story I was either told or read concerned a group of these composers adjourning to Ravel's pad, following the famous premiere of "Le Sacre", and Delage sitting at Ravel's piano and playing the entire work, from memory! Certainly I would have concurred with his view that Ravel had produced nothing better than the Mallarme settings we heard today at that stage: however gorgeous the pianism of "Gaspard" or the orchestration of "Daphnis" Ravel was somethat trapped in his own harmonic language - notwithstanding the collossal influence of that way of harmonic working on subsequent music, especially "light" music and jazz; but in that final one of the 4 settings, the one Debussy had avoided setting 1 year earlier, R appeared to reclaim those strange chromatic harmonies that Stravinsky had used in "The Pagan Night" section of "Le Sacre", less than a year before. The American woman "expert" on Les Apaches is turning out to be a fount of information, both on the Apaches, and the era that spawned them.

[Nick Armstrong]

Noted S_A - hoping to arrange things so that today's prog coincides with my journey home!

Further chances to assess Inghelbrecht and Ladmirault, I see...

[amateur51]

Has any Board member read Roger Nichols' study of Ravel?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ravel-Roger-Nichols/dp/0300187769/ref=wl_mb_hu_m_1_dp

[Serial_Apologist]

Has any Board member read Roger Nichols' study of Ravel?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ravel-Roger-...l_mb_hu_m_1_dp

No but it would be a nice one to get. The little book on Ravel in French which I bought in Geneva back in '68 was coy on the subject of R's sexual orientation.

There's a lovely story told about how Ravel's friendship with Debussy eventually broke down. Ravel had been very circumspect about his own string quartet, and asked him whether it was too much indebted to the Debussy work of 9 years previous to submit for the Prix de Rome. Nonsense, Debussy is said to have told him - it is your work, do not alter one note of it! Ravel. however, is said to have told people that, if he had his way, he would re-orchestrate Debussy's La Mer entirely!!! Brilliant orchestrator though Ravel was, he would have destroyed the special qualities of "La Mer", I think. This at any rate appears to have been the cause of the break.

[BBMmk2]

Ive heard Monday's broadcast, so far, so may have Tuesdays and Wednesday's to catch up on. Certainly from Monday's programme, it was rather tantalising! What concert programmers should look for maybe?

[Nick Armstrong]

I liked what I heard of the Breton Paul Ladmirault: the Prelude to Act 2 of his opera "Myrdhin" sounded good and I shall listen again

Delighted to find that the album from which that piece/performance was taken is still available on MP3 (although deleted in CD form): "Paul Ladmirault: Symphonic Poems" played (appropriately) by the Orchestre de Bretagne under Stefan Sanderling.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004CRQ6JG/ref=dm_ty_trk

Now downloaded. I know what will be on in the car motoring around Brittany at the end of this month

[BBMmk2]

Delighted to find that the album from which that piece/performance was taken is still available on MP3 (although deleted in CD form): "Paul Ladmirault: Symphonic Poems" played (appropriately) by the Orchestre de Bretagne under Stefan Sanderling.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004CRQ6JG/ref=dm_ty_trk

Now downloaded. I know what will be on in the car motoring around Brittany at the end of this month

Rather appropriate! I have never been to Brittany!

[Serial_Apologist]

What a delightful week these programmes have offered! I prefer listening to French music than German in the summer one-twelvth of the year.