Ravel: Shéhérazade - Ouverture de féerie

Ravel orchestrated his piano pieces Alborada del gracioso and Pavane pour une infante défunte to great effect; the former gains in suggestive colour, and the latter evokes nostalgic pathos. Another orchestrated work is the Menuet antique, which is redolent of old French dance forms. Rapsodie espagnole, Ravel’s first major orchestral work, shimmers with expectancy and bursts into Spanish dance rhythms, themes he pursued in Pièce en forme de habanera. His earliest orchestral work, the ‘fairy overture’ Shéhérazade, is all that remains of a planned opera based on The Thousand and One Nights. The famous Boléro, an ‘orchestrated crescendo’ of undimmed power, has proved one of the most popular works in all classical music.

‘This Ravel recital is quite outstanding in every way’. Penguin Guide Rosette

Ravel orchestrated his piano pieces Alborada del gracioso and Pavane pour une infante défunte to great effect; the former gains in suggestive colour, and the latter evokes nostalgic pathos. Another orchestrated work is the Menuet antique, which is redolent of old French dance forms Rapsodie espagnole, Ravel’s first major orchestral work, shimmers with expectancy and bursts into Spanish dance rhythms, themes he pursued in Pièce en forme de habanera. His earliest orchestral work, the ‘fairy overture’ Shéhérazade, is all that remains of a planned opera based on The Thousand and One Nights. The famous Boléro, an ‘orchestrated crescendo’ of undimmed power, has proved one of the most popular works in all classical music.

Ravel was a pianist, and the piano was central to his art. The piano was the instrument through which he discovered and expressed innovations in style, technique and expression. He composed at the piano, and, unsurprisingly, many of his orchestral works (Bolero being the exception) appeared in piano versions. Although his entire output is modest – around 60 works, he transcribed more than half of these works for 2 pianos, or piano duet.

Apart from the well known works, this 2cd set contains some little known pieces – Entre cloches of 1897 was only published in 1975, and was originally appended to the Haberna, now better known as the 3rd movement of Rapsodie espagnole. Frontispice for 2 pianos, 5 hands was written in 1918.

Ravel’s mother had died in 1917, and he was deeply attached to her. Her loss resulted in 3 years of musical silence, with the exception of Frontispice. It is a short and very experimental work published with a collection of philospohical war poetry by the Italian Ricciotto Canudo. It is a curiously evocative work, almost surreal.

Ravel’s masterpiece, Daphnis et Chloé, was composed for the Ballets Russes and premièred in 1912.

Ravel described his sumptuous score, for large orchestra, wind machine and wordless chorus, as “a choreographic symphony in three parts … a vast musical fresco … faithful to the Greece of my dreams”.

His earliest orchestral work, the “fairy overture” Shéhérazade is all that remains of a planned opera based on The Thousand and One Nights. Ravel conducted the première in 1899, although the score remained unpublished until 1975.