Ravel's Rotunda

[PerfectWagnerite]

i  just recently discovered the Piano Concerto for Left Hand. What a mind-blowingly work, pitting the left hand of the piano against a very large orchestra. I swear if you don't know the work and just listen to it you will never know it is for the left hand alone. The contrabasson solo at the beginning sounds like it is from some primordial bowel of the earth and not from a musical instrument.

Anyway I rather like this performance here. Miss Wang's steely left fingers displaying some pyrotechnics !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbEtk1kdYx4

My favorite however is this classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Sxpi0zybzA

(And how is it that Ravel only has 12 pages in this thread?)

[SymphonicAddict]

i  just recently discovered the Piano Concerto for Left Hand. What a mind-blowingly work, pitting the left hand of the piano against a very large orchestra. I swear if you don't know the work and just listen to it you will never know it is for the left hand alone. The contrabasson solo at the beginning sounds like it is from some primordial bowel of the earth and not from a musical instrument.

Anyway I rather like this performance here. Miss Wang's steely left fingers displaying some pyrotechnics !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbEtk1kdYx4

My favorite however is this classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Sxpi0zybzA

(And how is it that Ravel only has 12 pages in this thread?)

Definitely I can't disagree with you, that is one of the Ravel's jewels, it's really a magic piece. The beginning it's somewhat dark, almost tenebrous, I'd say the fittest beginning for such terrific concerto.

[Spineur]

Yes both Samson François and Yuja Wang performances are awe inspiring.  This CD of Yuja Wang is in my opinion her best: her Ravel style is surprizingly accurate.

TD: Sherazade, a rarely performed Ravel work comes in two flavors: an orchestral overture and a song cycle with chamber orchestra.  If you have a chance to listen to this song cycle it is a knockout.

Ravel has composed many fantastic melodies.  The chansons Madécasses is probably his best known cycle.  I recently came accross his hebraic melodies (in Yiddish !)  his Kaddish.  Quite amazing pieces.
And finally, he composed the darkest melodie I ever heard: Un grand sommeil noir, a Paul Verlaine poem

[Mirror Image]

Yes both Samson François and Yuja Wang performances are awe inspiring.  This CD of Yuja Wang is in my opinion her best: her Ravel style is surprizingly accurate.

TD: Sherazade, a rarely performed Ravel work comes in two flavors: an orchestral overture and a song cycle with chamber orchestra.  If you have a chance to listen to this song cycle it is a knockout.

Ravel has composed many fantastic melodies.  The chansons Madécasses is probably his best known cycle.  I recently came accross his hebraic melodies (in Yiddish !)  his Kaddish.  Quite amazing pieces.
And finally, he composed the darkest melodie I ever heard: Un grand sommeil noir, a Paul Verlaine poem

I can only nod my head in agreement here, although I'll add that the Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé is, perhaps IMHO, his greatest song cycle.

[Madiel]

The two Scheherazades are totally different works, aren't they? No musical material in common was my understanding.

[Spineur]

The two Scheherazades are totally different works, aren't they? No musical material in common was my understanding.

Nope !  The first Scheherazade did not meet the success Ravel expected for it.  So four years later he reworked the piece in a song cycle with chamber orchestra.  I did a quick comparison between the two and they do indeed sound pretty different, but the second version was directly inspired by the first.  On thursday I will attend a concert where Felicity Lott will perform this work.  I will report in due time.

[Madiel]

Nope !  The first Scheherazade did not meet the success Ravel expected for it.  So four years later he reworked the piece in a song cycle with chamber orchestra.  I did a quick comparison between the two and they do indeed sound pretty different, but the second version was directly inspired by the first.  On thursday I will attend a concert where Felicity Lott will perform this work.  I will report in due time.

Well, Wikipedia says the connection is a matter of debate, with only one similar opening theme, and Roger Nichols' book flatly says twice that the song cycle is "entirely unrelated to the early Overture" despite some people saying that it is.

So I'd be curious to know your sources for saying that it is an actual reworking or that one was inspired by the other (as opposed to both being inspired by an interest in the character).

[snyprrr]

I "just can't" with Ravel anymore. Listening to him after IS just makes me shrug my shoulders. Of course, I still love the PT, SQ, and Duo (vln+vnc), and 'Mirrors', and 'Gaspard', but that's about it,... The I+A too,... just the really really purist works with the least amount of exotic flavoures... all the Spanish stuff, and 'Bolero',... eh,... I just can't...

it's like 'Freebird' to me now

[vandermolen]

I "just can't" with Ravel anymore. Listening to him after IS just makes me shrug my shoulders. Of course, I still love the PT, SQ, and Duo (vln+vnc), and 'Mirrors', and 'Gaspard', but that's about it,... The I+A too,... just the really really purist works with the least amount of exotic flavoures... all the Spanish stuff, and 'Bolero',... eh,... I just can't...

it's like 'Freebird' to me now

Just took me half an hour to work out who and what 'IS' and 'PT' are  .

Kind of agree with you but probably to do with over-familiarity with his music. I'm also a great admirer of Gaspard. I also like the ubiquitous 'Bolero'  plus the PCs and Daphnis.

[snyprrr]

Just took me half an hour to work out who and what 'IS' and 'PT' are  .

ginko is your friend

Well, it was the 2 Piano Concertos that let me down this time. The Left-Hand has always been my favored, but this time, only the excellent introduction held me, all the way up until the piano entrance, then I was like... eh . It just wasn't as Poeish as I had in my head- but, the introduction is sublime,- I'll have to try others (I have Thibaudet and Fleisher?). I've never liked the PC, and this time it felt really Uptown, high class nightclub of 1937, really smooth and luxurious- uptown and languid but not overtly jazzy, but yes,- still, I was feeling it was kind of fake feeling, too hip, and it definitely isn't what I was looking for (Milhaud and Martinu being somewhat less chic, and more enjoyable).

But, yea, it's like 'Freebird', lol.

[aleazk]

... still, I was feeling it was kind of fake feeling, too hip, and it definitely isn't what I was looking for...

“Has it ever occurred to them,” he asked of his detractors, “that one may be artificial by nature?”



http://www.studio-hollywood.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/maurice_ravel.pdf

To me that fake feeling typical of Ravel is precisely what I like. There he shows that it's much more complex... He's not trying to just being chic and somewhat failing at it (i.e., the result is not completely convincing from a musical point of view)... that actual feel is put there to disrupt... to show that very same superficiality... a frail soul inside, when outside it's all superficial, vacous... makes you feel even more alienated... but you are part of them... and sometimes you even enjoy it!

[Crudblud]

Composition is the act of shaping the primal force of sound into a desired form, reducing it to a handful of configurations of a small set of its constituent parts; there is very little natural about it when a composer is through with it beyond the way the sound of the music itself moves through the air, but we have even built special rooms and devices for the purposes of controlling that too. The notion that Ravel's music is "artificial" while that of some other composer is not is completely baffling to me.

[aleazk]

It's just a vague metaphor. Based on Ravel's reaction and the usual discussion about this subject, I more or less tried to make more explicit what the detractors may be thinking when they use this metaphor and what is my perception of the aspect alluded by it.

[Crudblud]

It's just a vague metaphor. Based on Ravel's reaction and the usual discussion about this subject, I more or less tried to make more explicit what the detractors may be thinking when they use this metaphor and what is my perception of the aspect alluded by it.

I was making a general point, which is why I didn't quote anyone.

[aleazk]

I know. I was just answering your general point by using material from my previous comment. I was just lazy to make it more neutral sounding, sorry about that.

[vandermolen]

ginko is your friend

Well, it was the 2 Piano Concertos that let me down this time. The Left-Hand has always been my favored, but this time, only the excellent introduction held me, all the way up until the piano entrance, then I was like... eh . It just wasn't as Poeish as I had in my head- but, the introduction is sublime,- I'll have to try others (I have Thibaudet and Fleisher?). I've never liked the PC, and this time it felt really Uptown, high class nightclub of 1937, really smooth and luxurious- uptown and languid but not overtly jazzy, but yes,- still, I was feeling it was kind of fake feeling, too hip, and it definitely isn't what I was looking for (Milhaud and Martinu being somewhat less chic, and more enjoyable).

But, yea, it's like 'Freebird', lol.

I agree that the introduction to the LHPC (payback time  ) is my favourite bit in either PC.

[Crudblud]

I know. I was just answering your general point by using material from my previous comment. I was just lazy to make it more neutral sounding, sorry about that.

No need to apologise. Kind of odd that this is our first exchange in... a year at least?

[aleazk]

No need to apologise. Kind of odd that this is our first exchange in... a year at least?

Ha, yeah, a bit awkward.

Maybe more time. I have not been very much in the forums these last years since they have been difficult times for me.

Nice to see you again, though!

[snyprrr]

Yeah, well I will ruin Ravel for you if you don't ***** *****  because you'll ***** ***** back to the Xenakis thread this instant!

I'm counting to ten and if you don't move 

1.........

2........

'MURICA, WOOOO!!!! Pass me over the table some biscuits!!

[Robert101]

i  just recently discovered the Piano Concerto for Left Hand. What a mind-blowingly work, pitting the left hand of the piano against a very large orchestra. I swear if you don't know the work and just listen to it you will never know it is for the left hand alone. The contrabasson solo at the beginning sounds like it is from some primordial bowel of the earth and not from a musical instrument.

Anyway I rather like this performance here. Miss Wang's steely left fingers displaying some pyrotechnics !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbEtk1kdYx4

My favorite however is this classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Sxpi0zybzA

(And how is it that Ravel only has 12 pages in this thread?)

I agree. It's Ravel at his most direct, urgent self. Yet his bittersweet harmonies and orchestrational brilliance still shine through. I'll take the first 5 minutes of that work over almost anything.