Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole

Pierre Monteux conducts the LSO in classic recordings from 1959 and 1961, remastered and edited from stereo analogue tapes. In 1911 he was invited by Diaghilev to conduct his Ballet Russes and he led the premieres of 'Daphnis and Chloé', Debussy's 'Jeux', 'Petrushka' and the 'Rite of Spring', the last of which caused a notorious riot.

He became the musical director of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1961, at the age of 86, and had one of the longest musical careers exceeded perhaps only by Stokowski and Casals.

The best of Ravel, Ravel's greatest hits - they're all here on 2 CDs packed to the brim, containing all of Ravel's most memorable tunes.

Inevitably, the focus is on the immortal Bolero, beloved of the film industry. Ravel famously considered it to be his masterpiece, but claimed it had no music in it - an opinion with which many would take leave to disagree.

La Valse extends the theme of dance, the Rhapsodie espagnole the theme of Spanishry and exoticism, while the compilation ends with a flavour of jazz as exemplified in the Blues movement from the Violin Sonata and the Concerto for piano, left hand (which in the 1930s the famous pianist Alfred Cortot dared to play using both hands, incurring the composer's wrath).

These recordings were taken from live performances at the Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday 18th and Thursday 20th January 1955. Wilhelm Furtwängler was to have conducted these concerts, but sadly died in November 1954. Sir Thomas willingly conducted instead and the performances were given as a tribute to the great conductor and in memory of the friendship between Beecham and Furtwängler.

These unique recordings make their first appearance on CD. Some make their first ever appearance on Decca! Jean Morel (1903–75) counted among his teachers Isidore Philipp, Gabriel Pierné and Reynaldo Hahn. He established a connection with the United States early on, teaching at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleu between 1921 (when he was just eighteen!) and 1936. his conducting pupils included James Levine and Leonard Slatkin. Morel’s conducting bore many similarities to that of his countryman Pierre Monteux. His style was bright, clear and energetic, and he always gave the music’s colour its due. Appearing here is the only recording in the Decca catalogue of the complete orchestral version of Albéniz’s Iberia – in orchestrations by Arbós and Surinach. Completing this Spanish-flavoured program is music by Chabrier, Bizet and Ravel. The legendary Decca engineer Kenneth Wilkinson is responsible for the great ‘Decca Sound’.

Gloriously spectacular, yet exquisitely subtle, the orchestral music of Ravel requires players who can render its iridescent colours and intoxicating rhythms with both exuberance and accuracy. The conductor, meanwhile, must define its characteristic interplay of sensuality and delicacy, exhilaration and restraint, sentiment and irony. Here, in five of Ravel’s best-loved scores, The Philadelphia Orchestra and Riccardo Muti prove masterly in capturing the composer’s spirit and in evoking his exotic worlds.

Bernard Haitink revisited the music of Ravel on recordings several times in his career, both with ‘his’ Concertgebouw Orchestra as well as with the Boston Symphony. While many of these recordings have been reissued, his earliest, and in a way, most exciting accounts of the music of Ravel, made in 1961, have never appeared internationally on CD. They include a blazing account of the second Daphnis et Chloé suite, the Pavane, Alborado and Rapsodie espagnole. In 1971 he re-recorded the two Daphnis suites and it is from these sessions that the First Suite is taken to complete this very valuable reissue.