Ravel's Rotunda

[Luke]

Completely agree, and those mask-slipping moments you describe move me very deeply too. In fact I think that more than anything else they are the reason Ravel is so very special to me.

[Mirror Image]

Completely agree, and those mask-slipping moments you describe move me very deeply too. In fact I think that more than anything else they are the reason Ravel is so very special to me.

+1

You took the words right out of my mouth.

[vandermolen]

Ravel's sleep patterns were quite mixed up, I think. I'm not sure how accurate this is, but when I visited his marvellous house at Montfort l'Amaury I was told that he sometimes ended up sleeping late or into the day due to nocturnal insomnia  - but that in his bedroom he had special shutters made with star-shaped holes cut into them so he could still deceive himself into thinking it was night... which doesn't really make sense, if you think about it. That was how the guide explained those shutters, anyway - but what they also demonstrate, as does so much else in that house, and of course so much in his music, is Ravel's love of the artificial, his preference for a screen from reality.

Yes. Fascinating - thanks.

[vandermolen]

Utterly fascinating anecdote, Luke. Thanks for sharing. My own thoughts: when Ravel removes the artificial, or the mask(s), if you will, we really get a glimpse of the man's beating heart IMHO and it never fails to move me deeply.

+1

[Mirror Image]

Thinking of Luke's post about Ravel's home, I found this interesting video:

https://www.youtube.com/v/oFxySK-GePM

[Mirror Image]

Another little tour of Ravel's home:

https://www.youtube.com/v/BBLXNf84_AQ

[Mirror Image]

I'm debating on which Ravel complete solo piano works set to buy as I already own Bavouzet. Here are the ones I have my eyes on at the moment:





Any feedback on any of these sets would be greatly appreciated. I'm not a diehard fan of solo piano music, but I do really enjoy Ravel's (and Debussy's).

[Karl Henning]

I don't know any of these. I can say I like Lortie's Liszt very much.

[ritter]

I'm debating on which Ravel complete solo piano works set to buy as I already own Bavouzet. Here are the ones I have my eyes on at the moment:





Any feedback on any of these sets would be greatly appreciated. I'm not a diehard fan of solo piano music, but I do really enjoy Ravel's (and Debussy's).

The name is Perlemuter, Vlado Perlemuter...preferably the later cycle on Nimbus than the Vox IMHO (even if the Vox has both piano concertos conducted by no less a legend than Jascha Horenstein--but in subpar sound IIRC).

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Cheers,

[Madiel]

Can't help much I'm afraid. I have Pascal Roge.

All I can tell you is that when there was a blind listening test on Gaspard, Steven Osborne did very well (and I personally rated him highly on the two movements I was involved in rating). Both Tharaud and Perlemuter got knocked out during the first round (on 'Ondine'). The notes I have suggest that Lortie and Hewitt weren't contestants. Roge wasn't either.

Also, have you noticed that GMG'ers are getting rather excited about a new set by Bertrand Chamayou?

[Mirror Image]

Thanks for the feedback all, but I went ahead and bought Osborne's set as 1. I'm quite familiar with his pianism and 2. I decided that I wanted a non-Frenchman for my second, and probably last, cycle of Ravel's solo piano music just to hear a different approach.

[Mirror Image]

Also, have you noticed that GMG'ers are getting rather excited about a new set by Bertrand Chamayou?

Yes, I've noticed indeed and Karlo (North Star) has been bugging the living daylights out me about that set, which apparently he heard for free via Dutch Radio? Pretty cool.

[Madiel]

Some of you may have noticed I've been having a chronological Ravel excursion. Sadly doesn't take all that long, he really didn't write a huge amount...

But I came in here to observe that the two chamber works I didn't already know - the Introduction and Allegro, and the Sonata for Violin and Cello, are both knockouts. Wow. I definitely need to get both of these in my collection soon.

I'm liking a lot of the songs as well, and even the 1st opera (haven't got to the 2nd yet).  I may well like opera when it's that short.

[vandermolen]

Great anecdote about Ravel on 'This Week's Composer' on BBC Radio 3 today. At the Paris premiere of 'Bolero' a woman jumped up, pointed at Ravel and said 'He's mad!' When told about this Ravel gently smiled and said 'she truly understands the work'.
Love it. 

[Mirror Image]

Great anecdote about Ravel on 'This Week's Composer' on BBC Radio 3 today. At the Paris premiere of 'Bolero' a woman jumped up, pointed at Ravel and said 'He's mad!' When told about this Ravel gently smiled and said 'she truly understands the work'.
Love it. 

Hah!

[vandermolen]

Hah!

Also talking about Bolero he said that he'd composed a work 'which contains no music'. 

[Madiel]

This comment from 2008 inspired me to listen to this collection.

I've sort of got my eye on that one, there's also some other versions of the songs I'm considering. I don't think enough attention gets paid to the songs of either Ravel or Debussy.

[North Star]

Happy 142nd Birthday to Ravel!

I've been celebrating by listening to Chamayou's recordings of Sonatine, Le tombeau de Couperin and other pieces, and now Cecilia Bartoli & Myung-whun Chung's (piano) Deux Mélodies hébraïques from the Decca complete Ravel. . . well, actually I was listening to all that before I noticed it was his birthday.

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[relm1]

What is your favorite recording of Daphnis et Chloe?  There are so many great performances but what is the greatest?  I love James Levine/Boston Symphony.  The new BIS recording with the Rottterdam Philharmonic/Yannick Nezet-Seguin is also perfection.  Any others?

[Mirror Image]

What is your favorite recording of Daphnis et Chloe?  There are so many great performances but what is the greatest?  I love James Levine/Boston Symphony.  The new BIS recording with the Rottterdam Philharmonic/Yannick Nezet-Seguin is also perfection.  Any others?

I straddle between three favorites: Dutoit/MSO (Decca), Martinon/Orchestre de Paris (EMI), and Boulez/Berliners (DG).