In addition to “Bolero”: there is a remarkable work of pasture in all kinds – from concerts to the plan to orchestral works, from solo music to chamber music, from songs to work; Know your story and listen to three iconic works
One hundred and fifty years ago, on March 7, 1875, he was born Maurice Ravel In the small city of foodure. At the time, as today, the small town had 6,000 inhabitants and was simultaneously French and Basque. His name is both pronounced for the French, the Cibure and the Ziburu in Basque.
Son of French father and Basque mother, he himself considered ethnically exotic. In fact, the French father married Marie Delouart, Basque in 1873. Three days later, the couple settled in Paris.
But, since he was customary among the immigrant basters, when he was pregnant, Marie returned to food, where he gave birth to the boy. Three days after childbirth, the family returned to Paris. Maurice has sought an ideal Spain for life. Especially that of the Basque country. From 30 years onwards, he visited his Christmas food every year; You have even fond of the medieval game of the Basque pellet.
At 14, he began to study at the Paris Conservatory and found one of his most loved masters, Gabriel Fauré, who taught him composition lessons. Chained a pinca of remarkable works for the plan: Jeux d’Eau, Miroir, Alborada del Gracesso, Gaspard de la nuit, Valses Nobles et sentimentals and two masterpieces for four -handed piano (But mère the oyeGansa Mama) and two piano (It was worth itFor Piano as a soloist and two piano) and exploded with Daphnis et Chloé, composed for the Russian Balés of Diaghilev and debut in 1912.
In the Great War of 1914, he was a driver. Fragile health caused its demobilization in 1917, still during the war. In fact, he has always suffered from his high 1.57 me 54 pounds.
They reacted furiously when they called him “Le Petit Ravel”. He murmured slowly: “Some composers were short: think of Beethoven and Mozart.” Jean Cocteau, a key figure of the cultural effervescence of Paris of the 1920s, said he “having a bird head”.
It is a commonplace to say that its production is small, but, in return, everything that composed competes on a equality level with the masterpieces of all kinds. But it’s a fact. From concerts for piano to orchestral works, from music For the solo plan to chamber music, from songs to workIn every genre there is an extraordinary work of Ravel.
Not to mention the fact that it is the academic composer responsible for some of the greatest shots of the 20th century whose charm lasts intact. They need Bolero, Pavana for a dead child and the success of the successes, the fabulous orchestration that made the Pleastri of exposureOriginal composition for piano of the modest Russian Mussarsgky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R30D3SW4VW
THE Boleroa sort of solid sensual tribute to the without parallel melody, rivals in popularity with the beats of the fate of Fifth symphony Beethoven o The four Vivaldi stations. These three, by the way, alternate in the first three positions among the best -selling recordings of the planet from the invention of the phonography at the end of the nineteenth century.
In fact, the Fifth he reigned alone until the 1930s, when the Bolero He joined her; And twenty years later, the trio of “blows” was closed with Vivaldi’s work, rediscovered in the 1950s. Pavana for a dead child It has been and continues to be reinvented and reorganized with a thousand and one since it was composed in 1899. Grande Flammist, Ravel reacted so when he entered the game room at Monte Carlo Casino. Maestro Paul Paray asked him if he wanted to bet. Ravel replied: “I wrote Bolero And I won. I’m right here. “
In their other symphonic works, such as Alborada del Gracesso, Because, Spanish rhapsody, Waltze noble and sentimental And, above all, in Daphnis et chloeIt was very original in instrumentation and orchestration. Even if he is not reaching a dozen works, his chamber production was, it is and, surely, will be very present in the rooms and recordings of the concerts.
Are pieces that combine tools differently, such as the Introduction and cheerful for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet; or the sonata for violin and cello; Or, they stand out in conventional genres (as the only one quartet of arches or the trio per piano and ropes). And ten between ten pianists have at least one of their formidable creations in their repertoire. They are gems like Jeux d’EauA Sonatin, The Tombeau de Couperin, Miroir AND Gaspard de la nuit.
What is the secret that makes your compositions so attractive in creative terms and, at the same time, able to reach not only public music or the concert, but above all the vast public?
In an interview, he proposed a metaphor to explain the way he saw his job. Imagine being in a room to study. After a few hours, you think the atmosphere is a little employee, you have to renew the air: open the window, let the fresh air flood the room and shortly after, close the window. This is evolution.
Now you can choose to throw a stone in the window and break the glass. Of course, the fresh air enters, but then you will have to repair the window. This is the revolution. In this way he put the situation of the composers directly at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Ravel was successful in life
Here is the key to understanding the immense public success and the criticisms that Ravel has already achieved in life, a rare fact in the 20th century music. Our”.
He gave another clue that helps us to understand his artistic belief, in an interview since 1922 to the English newspaper The musical leader: “The music that is made in France today is much simpler than that of Wagner, his followers or his greatest disciple, Richard Strauss. He has no gigantic shapes of Beethoven or Wagner, but has a sensitivity that no other school has. His greatest qualities are clarity and order. The après-mide of a fauna of Debussy that in the wonderfully immense Ninth symphony From Beethoven. The current French composers work with small screens, but each brush is vital. “
His biggest idol was Claude Debussy (1864-1918). I liked the Prelude to L’Eprès-Midi of a fauna which transcribed it to four hands slowly. And he chose him, on the eve of death in 1937, when Manuel Rosenthal asked him morbidly what music he would have liked for his funeral.
Little suffering from theories, it preferred systematic work. According to his student Manuel Rosenthal, “he considered himself a worker, a craftsman. He never saw himself as an artist or intellectual: these words have raged him”.
Full of emotion, however. Hence the remarkable and immediate communication skills of his works with the public in general. When you talk about it, think about it immediately Bolero and in Pavana for a dead child. They have an impact but never trivial works.
An opportunity, a boy touched by color a Pavan Not knowing which Ravel was in the room. In the end, he approached and said: “The way you played, Pavana became dead for a child!”
On January 4, 1928, Ravel landed in New York. He made a vast tour of the United States and Canada until April. At that time, he showed his ability to absorb all types of news and print his DNA.
Two killer examples: in 1927 he made his debut Sonata for violin and pianowhich contains a movement entitled Blues which is … pure blue. Already in Sun concertPreviewed in 1932, it is seen that Ravel absorbed more than blues. He swallowed the jazz who was then made to Harlem, with Duke Ellington, Satchmo, James P. Johnson and other Bambas. Harlem who visited in the early months of 1928, chirified by George Gershwin.
THE Presumably It is pure jazz from the whisk that starts at flautim that floats above the pinched of violins and violets, all supported by the tremendous cello and the drum swar. He was enthusiastic about what he saw and listened to the New York Negro district where a new and very synchronous song was managed. In a lesson to the white public of Manhattan he warned that in Black Jazz there, it was the essence of American music.
THE Sun concert Previewed on January 14, 1932 in Paris. Nine months later, in October, in a taxi accident, he suffered several injuries, apparently without gravity. But the following summer had motor coordination problems. It was aphasia [incapacidade de expressar pensamentos em palavras]Or the picking disease, which was starting to manifest itself. The last few years have been particularly painful. Surgery on December 19, 1937 without success caused his death on December 28th.
Three recordings to celebrate the 150th anniversary
- Integral of work for the solo piano, four hands and two piano, chamber, songs and concerts with orchestra (6 CDs, 6h38 ‘, available in streaming), with François-Xavier Poizat (floor) and guest musicians. The first CD contains great interpretations of the 3 piano concerts, with Poizat and Philhamony Orchestra, ruled by Simone Menezes. Oparé, de2024.
Tasting: PresumablyFirst movement of the concert in Sol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klsu2ssstn58u
- Ravel Orchestral worksDouble Album DG (1993), with Pierre Boulez who rules the Berlin Philharmonic in the “Hits” of Ravel: Boléro, Vesta, Daphnis et Chloe, Spanish Rapsiodia, Océan’s barque unit, but I am out. Boulez’s rational coldness does a favor: it does not inject too impetus into a song that is already overflowing by nature. He is also a tribute to Boulez in the year of his centenary of birth.
Tasting: It was worth it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4hv4TBP6MY
- Quartets through a time of changeQuartets in a moment of change, with the sound of the brother’s tree. First hand/February/2025. Great idea: instead of mating for the millionth time the unique quartets of Ravel and Debussy, here Ravel coexists with those of other exact contemporary, members of the six group of six: Louis Durey, Darius Milhaud and Germaine Tailleferre. Listen Très AniméThe final movement of Quartet n. 4 that Milhaud composed when he lived in Rio de Janeiro, in 1918:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbrb5ueku2lw
Source: Terra
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
