Musical atrocity alert

[Todd]

Let me start by stating three things: 1.) I dig Ravel.  2.) I have not listened to this whole disc (nor will I).  3.) The artists acquit themselves quite well.

But let me also state this: Ravel's orchestration of Carnaval is hideous.  I heard it on the radio last night and could not believe my ears.  It's just bad, bad, bad.  Thankfully, only fragments survive.  Here's to hoping it is not frequently recorded or performed.

On a related note, the local classical station has been playing some orchestrations of Debussy's Preludes - the Mark Elder jobs I believe.  These are likewise very bad, but not as frightfully bad as the Carnaval massacre.

[karlhenning]

. . . Ravel's orchestration of Carnaval is hideous.  I heard it on the radio last night and could not believe my ears.  It's just bad, bad, bad.  Thankfully, only fragments survive.  Here's to hoping it is not frequently recorded or performed.

On a related note, the local classical station has been playing some orchestrations of Debussy's Preludes - the Mark Elder jobs I believe.  These are likewise very bad, but not as frightfully bad as the Carnaval massacre.

If only fragments survive, perhaps the composer himself abandoned the project.  It may be that Ravel is not to be faulted that they were exhumed by an overzealous musicologger . . . .

[Todd]

If only fragments survive, perhaps the composer himself abandoned the project.  It may be that Ravel is not to be faulted that they were exhumed by an overzealous musicologger . . . .

Looks like it was done for Nijinksy.  Looks like I'm a howling purist in this case.  That's fine with me.

[karlhenning]

Ah, well . . . .

[Grazioso]

Oops, pardon me, I thought this was a Stockhausen thread... 

[Daverz]

There's an orchestration of Carnaval in the Ansermet Decca Original Masters box.  James Miller had this to say in Fanfare:

Ansermet conducted Le carnaval in 1915 at his first performance under Diaghilev's auspices, then recorded seven excerpts from it in 1916 when the Diaghilev Ballets Russes was on tour in New York and he was their chef d'orchestre and identified as such on the 78 labels. He went on to record four excerpts late in his career with the orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for an album celebrating the Royal Ballet. Decca's booklet, possibly to save space, identifies the orchestration as being by "Glazunov and others." The orchestration was not done for the Ballets Russes. It was actually executed by 11 composers as a tribute to Anton Rubinstein who had reputedly expressed a wish that Schumann's Carnaval would be performed in theatrical form with dances, costumes, and scenery. By 1902, when this was finally done, Rubinstein was dead. The choreography was by one M. Ligat. The 11 composers, some of whose names may survive only because of their involvement in the project, were Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Liadov, Arensky, Nicholas Tcherepnin, and also Klenovsky, Petrov, Kalafi, Winkler, Wihtol, and Sokolov. Contributions by Petrov, Kalafi, Wihtol, and Sokolov can actually be heard on the 1916 78-disc. I don't believe the arrangers were identified on the Royal Ballet set, but among the four excerpts is Sokolov's "Avue." I do not know what caused Diaghilev to have a ballet created—perhaps he went to one of the Rubinstein galas (there were two). In any event, a version choreographed by Michael Fokine was performed in 1910 and went on tour with apparent success. Later, Le carnaval was taken up by other companies. It may take some getting used to, but I think the orchestration (one movement is omitted) works, and makes me curious to see the ballet itself.