Ravel's Rotunda

[Maciek]

(But what if Karl meant Ravel?)

[lukeottevanger]

He can't have done. You know full well - on the highest authority, in fact - that Karl and I only think there have ever been two musical genii, namely us.

[Maciek]

* slaps forehead *

[karlhenning]

Fascinating discussion on the notation of harmonics must perforce ensue 

[Maciek]

Now THAT has almost brought me to tears!

[lukeottevanger]

Fascinating discussion on the notation of harmonics must perforce ensue 

Personally, you know that I've always thought Ravel got this wrong.

[lukeottevanger]

(Oh dear, no one else reading this will have any idea what we're on about.)

[pjme]

In december the NOB ( Belgian National orchestra) will do Daphnis et Chloé -complete ( with chorus & windmachine...) - coupled with Stravinsky's concerto for piano & winds and Lekeu's adagio for strings. Good!
Jan Michiels is soloist, Stefan Blunier conductor.

P.

[karlhenning]

In december the NOB ( Belgian National orchestra) will do Daphnis et Chloé -complete ( with chorus & windmachine...) - coupled with Stravinsky's concerto for piano & winds and Lekeu's adagio for strings. Good!
Jan Michiels is soloist, Stefan Blunier conductor.

P.

Terrific program!

[drogulus]

     This is a good set with Martinon/Orchestra de Paris, from 1974. There's also a 3 CD EMI set that includes the complete Daphnis et Chloé along with everything on this one.

     

     This was originally a Vox box, now it's a 24/96 DAD from Classic Records, and it's my favorite Ravel recording.

     

     

[pjme]

  And in January the Limburg SO program l'Enfant et les sortilèges!!!! Propably they will play it in Rotterdam and Maastricht. Let's hope they use the Luthéal....

P.

[Maciek]

That will be a concert perfomance, I understand? I'd really love to see it live! Does anyone know if there's a DVD recording?

I have some of Skrowaczewski's Ravel, but not all of it. I think I will have to change that.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I haven't had time to post much lately but would like to say Luke is right on the money with his advice - except, of course, for his dislike for those saucy Chuck Jones covers, which I love:








I will admit, though, the performances themselves give ground when matched with, say, Maazel or Ansermet.

The Maazel might be a more cost-effective way to pick up these wonderful works vs. the more expensive (and top-notch) Ansermet and are in the front ranks as far as interpretation. Also they are really well recorded which might make a difference to some.

[lukeottevanger]

I haven't had time to post much lately but would like to say Luke is right on the money with his advice - except, of course, for his dislike for those saucy Chuck Jones covers, which I love:

Sorry to be all po-faced!  But those covers are really a million miles away from the tenderness of both these works, and at the same time suggest that both pieces are really just parodistic, manic extravaganzas. When Wagner operas undergo the cartoon treatment, we know it's a parody, the bombast and hubris of Wagner reduced by a carrot-munching bunny - Wagner remains unaffected. But when Ravel's quirky and bizarre operas, free of both bombast and hubris, undergo it the implication is that their quirkiness and bizarreness put them somehow on a similar aesthetic plane to the cartoons. There would be no problem with operas which were on this plane - it's not an inferior one - but the Ravel operas are most emphatically not there. In its own way, the end of L'enfant is as profound and moving as the end of the Ring or Tristan (much more so, to my ears, I must say).

[karlhenning]

Anyway, Luke, any of us might as easily have confused Le style Chuck Jones for Disney . . . L'enfant there looks like either the Aristocats or Lady & the Tramp, and tge duetting grandfather clocks for L'heure could be from the Disney feature Cinderella . . . .

[lukeottevanger]

Indeed! It's the 'enfant' one which is particularly 'wrong' - L'heure espagnole is a farce (though the only funny farce I know, with terrifically witty orchstral and vocal characterization), and the illustration isn't that inappropriate I suppose. But l'enfant is pure magic...

[Dancing Divertimentian]

But when Ravel's quirky and bizarre operas, free of both bombast and hubris, undergo it the implication is that their quirkiness and bizarreness put them somehow on a similar aesthetic plane to the cartoons.

Interestingly enough, it appears that to André Previn it's the cartoons which rise to level of the operas!

Here's an extract from the liner notes:

"I've had the privilege of watching [Chuck Jones] sketch and draw, and it has given me the same sort of pleasure that I get from listening to the most illustrious virtuosos in the field of music."

Quite a statement! So I assume it was Previn's idea for the cover art.

I wonder if DG sought a padded room for Previn after that.

[lukeottevanger]

I've always had my suspicions about Previn! 

[Kullervo]

Is this a good recording?



All of the works on the disc are unknown to me apart from Debussy's violin sonata and the sonate en trio.

I wish someone would release a complete set of Ravel's chamber music so this would be easier. 

[karlhenning]

Is this a good recording?

I think it's pretty good;  that is the recording of the Sonata for Vn & Vc and the Piano Trio that I have loaded onto my Sansa Fuze . . . .