Ravel's Rotunda

[Lisztianwagner]

Do you have it, or do you mean that it's promising?
Certainly makes me drool, Muraro is one heck of a pianist, and Chung is no slouch, either.

The second one.

[Lisztianwagner]

Perfect performance of Ravel's Forlane from Le Tombeau de Couperin by Arthur Rubinstein:

http://www.youtube.com/v/F0RA8lBOLGc

[Brian]

Moving a discussion from "Purchases Today":

Man, it's really boggling my imagination that there are people who could strongly dislike Ravel's La valse. Heck, even my high school Texas blonde ex-girlfriend who didn't know anything about classical music really liked La valse when I lent it to her. She said while listening she imagined being in an enchanted forest that gradually turns nightmarish and scary, with unknowable beasts behind the trees. [She also once had a hard time sleeping and tried the last "Nacht" from Eine Alpensinfonie, then the next day said "hey I thought this would help me sleep but it creeped me out!" ]

I view La valse as a sort of fever-dream, a sweaty hallucinated world where all the colors are a little too bright and the images are a little too in-focus and the dance is spinning a little too quickly. Well and the ending is a thrill.

[Mirror Image]

It's possible to dislike anything if a person doesn't show any emotional/intellectual connection. La Valse isn't a 'terrible' work, but it has never been a favorite and least likely to be in the future as there's nothing about it to me that is redeeming or even memorable. The orchestration, as always with Ravel, is superb, but like R. Strauss' music, this isn't enough for me to keep listening. There always has to be something more. Ravel is one of my favorite composers but there's still some of his orchestral music that leaves me cold and La Valse falls into that category.

[Karl Henning]

Moving a discussion from "Purchases Today":

Man, it's really boggling my imagination that there are people who could strongly dislike Ravel's La valse. Heck, even my high school Texas blonde ex-girlfriend who didn't know anything about classical music really liked La valse when I lent it to her. She said while listening she imagined being in an enchanted forest that gradually turns nightmarish and scary, with unknowable beasts behind the trees. [She also once had a hard time sleeping and tried the last "Nacht" from Eine Alpensinfonie, then the next day said "hey I thought this would help me sleep but it creeped me out!" ]

I view La valse as a sort of fever-dream, a sweaty hallucinated world where all the colors are a little too bright and the images are a little too in-focus and the dance is spinning a little too quickly. Well and the ending is a thrill.

A most evocative description, Brian, nicely done! La valse is unquestionable first-rate, and likely Ravel's finest purely orchestral score.

We've discussed elsewhere that a piece of great music will bear multiple meanings, and that once a composer releases a work out onto the wide world, it will accrue some meaning beyond his own intent . . . there is this fascinating remark which the composer made in one of his letters:

While some discover an attempt at parody, indeed caricature, others categorically see a tragic allusion in it - the end of the Second Empire, the situation in Vienna after the war, etc.... This dance may seem tragic, like any other emotion... pushed to the extreme. But one should only see in it what the music expresses: an ascending progression of sonority, to which the stage comes along to add light and movement.

In either light, a magnificent piece!

[bhodges]

A most evocative description, Brian, nicely done! La valse is unquestionable first-rate, and likely Ravel's finest purely orchestral score.

We've discussed elsewhere that a piece of great music will bear multiple meanings, and that once a composer releases a work out onto the wide world, it will accrue some meaning beyond his own intent . . . there is this fascinating remark which the composer made in one of his letters:

In either light, a magnificent piece!

Today is...Ravel's birthday!

Totally agree about La valse - one of his greatest. And like Brian's "fever-dream" comment. I'm thinking about my first encounter with it, decades ago, with the Dallas Symphony and Donald Johanos conducting. I'd never heard anything like it.

--Bruce

[MishaK]

[She also once had a hard time sleeping and tried the last "Nacht" from Eine Alpensinfonie, then the next day said "hey I thought this would help me sleep but it creeped me out!" ]

Well it does end with some creepy bass rummaging and that unresolved chord at the end. 

[Parsifal]

The more I explore this set the more I love it.

[asin]B0000C4EXA[/asin]

[Lisztianwagner]

I have got that set too, I agree it's beautiful!

[Brian]

Saw this on MusicWeb today (in the Magnus Lindberg review):

"Lindberg's [piano concerto] follows the same kind of progress as the Ravel [concerto for the left hand] - from an opening in Stygian depths of darkness to an affirmative conclusion."

Does anyone think of the left-hand concerto as having an "affirmative conclusion"?

[snyprrr]

I was thinking of having the rock band play Bolero, but as I was listening, unless one were to play it with a 'Kashmir' feel, I don't see this being viable. I know Zappa did it, buuut...

[Karl Henning]

I was thinking of having the rock band play Bolero, but as I was listening, unless one were to play it with a 'Kashmir' feel, I don't see this being viable. I know Zappa did it, buuut...

. . . quite abbreviated, of course. That said, a spirited and inventive arrangement.

[kyjo]

Due out soon from Hanssler Classic:

[asin]B00EYYU6RA[/asin]

Deneve, who proved himself to be a conductor of the highest caliber in his Roussel series for Naxos, should be right at home in Ravel, I would think!

[Brian]

Due out soon from Hanssler Classic:

[asin]B00EYYU6RA[/asin]

Deneve, who proved himself to be a conductor of the highest caliber in his Roussel series for Naxos, should be right at home in Ravel, I would think!

I saw his 'La valse' live with the LPO. Even by the usual very high standards for live 'La valse' performances (it's hard to kill and almost always a ton of fun), his might be the best I've been in the hall for.

This should definitely eclipse the ongoing Ravel series by [from most interesting to least] Krivine (Zig Zag), Slatkin (Naxos), and Rizzi (Tacet).

[kyjo]

I saw his 'La valse' live with the LPO. Even by the usual very high standards for live 'La valse' performances (it's hard to kill and almost always a ton of fun), his might be the best I've been in the hall for.

This should definitely eclipse the ongoing Ravel series by [from most interesting to least] Krivine (Zig Zag), Slatkin (Naxos), and Rizzi (Tacet).

Good to hear, Brian!

[Mirror Image]

Due out soon from Hanssler Classic:

[asin]B00EYYU6RA[/asin]

Deneve, who proved himself to be a conductor of the highest caliber in his Roussel series for Naxos, should be right at home in Ravel, I would think!

I wish he would finish his Roussel series! I mean I know he doesn't record for Naxos now, but there are still many stones he left unturned in Roussel's oeuvre. One work that is in dire need of a modern recording is the sublime Evocations.

I can't say I'm completely onboard with this new Ravel series as I already have too many favorites in this repertoire already.

[kyjo]

I wish he would finish his Roussel series! I mean I know he doesn't record for Naxos now, but there are still many stones he left unturned in Roussel's oeuvre. One work that is in dire need of a modern recording is the sublime Evocations.

I can't say I'm completely onboard with this new Ravel series as I already have too many favorites in this repertoire already.

I feel you, John. Dutoit and Martinon have yet to be surpassed in Ravel. Deneve doesn't record for Naxos anymore? That's a real shame. Roussel isn't the only composer who needs Deneve's attention. He would do very well in Koechlin, I would think, as well as in other lesser-known French impressionists such as Jean Cras.

[Mirror Image]

I feel you, John. Dutoit and Martinon have yet to be surpassed in Ravel. Deneve doesn't record for Naxos anymore? That's a real shame. Roussel isn't the only composer who needs Deneve's attention. He would do very well in Koechlin, I would think, as well as in other lesser-known French impressionists such as Jean Cras.

My understanding is that since he took the Stuttgart RSO position they do all their recording with Hanssler. Yes! Deneve needs to record some Koechlin! ASAP!!!! But seriously, Roussel's Evocations NEEDS a modern performance now!!! This is an incredible piece of music. I'd like to hear Deneve conduct some F. Martin, Milhaud, Ibert, and Schmitt as well.

[kyjo]

Don't know how good the performances will be, but Slatkin's second installment in his Ravel series for Naxos includes an interesting rarity: Marius Constant's orchestration of Gaspard de la nuit:



http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.572888

Since I'm a sucker for orchestrations of Ravel's and Debussy's piano works, chances are I'll be picking this up. I'm just not sure Slatkin and French music sounds like a great mixture.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I feel you, John. Dutoit and Martinon have yet to be surpassed in Ravel.

I dunno...let's pause and think about that for a second. I don't think it's possible to narrow the list of great Ravelians down to only two conductors. Not when there are the likes of these out there:

Monteux
Cluytens
Ansermet
Haitink (w/ the Boston SO)
Chailly
Koussevitzky

Probably plenty more I haven't heard (Munch is popular, too).