Ravel: Complete Piano Works - Philippe Entremont (2 CD Box)

Ravel: Complete Piano Works – Philippe Entremont

CD 1:
Maurice RAVEL: Menuet Antique, M. 7 – Pavane pour une infante défunte, M. 19 – Jeux d’eau, M. 30 – Sonatine, M. 40: I. Modéré – II. Mouvement de menuet – III. Animé – Miroirs, M. 43: I. Noctuelles – II. Oiseaux tristes – III. Une barque sur l’océan – IV. Alborada del gracioso – V. La vallée des cloches – Sites auriculaires, M. 8*: Habanera – Sites auriculaires, M. 13*: Entre cloches – Ma mère l’Oye, M. 60*: I. Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant – II. Petit Poucet – III. Laideronnette, Impératrice des pagodes – IV. Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête – V. Le jardin féerique.

CD 2:
Maurice RAVEL: Gaspard de la nuit, M. 55: I. Ondine – II. Le Gibet – III. Scarbo – Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn, M. 58 – Valses nobles et sentimentales, M. 61: I. Modéré, très franc – II. Assez lent, avec une expression intense – III. Modéré – IV. Assez animé – V. Presque lent, dans un sentiment intime – VI. Vif – VII. Moins vif – VIII. Épilogue. Lent – À la manière de Chabrier, M. 63, No. 2 – À la manière de Borodine, M. 63, No. 1 – Prélude, M. 65 – Le tombeau de Couperin, M. 68: I. Prélude – II. Fugue – III. Forlane – IV. Rigaudon – V. Menuet – VI. Toccata.

Philippe Entremont, Piano.
* Laura Mikkola, Piano.

https://philippeentremont.com/

Maurice Ravel’s Piano Music

Philippe Entremont did not want the « Inédits » to appear on his recording of the complete Piano works of Maurice Ravel as they did not live up to the composer’s own desire for perfection.
In his « Esquisse Autobiographique », Maurice Ravel briefly mentioned « La Sérénade Grotesque », adding « In 1895 I wrote my first published work for piano, “Le Menuet Antique” [and] “La Habanera”. I believe that this work contains, in an embryonic form, several elements of what would predominate in my later compositions. »

In « Le Menuet Antique », composed in 1895 and published in 1899, and in « La Pavane pour Une Enfante Défunte », composed in 1899 and published the following year, the influence of Emmanuel Chabrier can still be seen. In « La Pavane » the melody is bewitching and has marvellously withstood the test of time.

« Les Jeux d’Eaux » (1901), according to Maurice Ravel in his « Esquisse Autobiographique », « was the beginning of the innovation in piano-playing that people saw in my work. This piece of music, inspired by the noise of water and the sounds made by fountains, waterfalls and streams, is based on two motifs in the style of the first part of a sonata, without, however, being subject to a classical tonal plan. »

« La Sonatine » (1903-1905) is made up of three movements: Modéré, Mouvement de menuet, Animé. For the second time, Maurice Ravel borrowed the form of the minuet from the past but in order to renew it. In the first movement of the Sonatine, whose theme reappears in the third, we can see the annotations, « very expressive… passionate. »

With « Les Miroirs », a new step was taken. Again quoting from « L’Esquisse Autobiographique », « Les Miroirs », is a collection of pieces for piano which marked a change in my harmonic evolution, significant enough to disconcert musicians accustomed to my style up to then. The earliest and the most typical of all these pieces, is to my mind, the second one in the collection, « Les Oiseaux Tristes ». « I evoke birds lost in the torpor of a very dark forest during the hottest part of the summer. »

« Les Noctuelles » (grey or brown moths) is like the musical equivalent of a sentence by Léon-Paul Fargue: « The moths in the barn fly awkwardly away to hang onto other beams. »

In his book on piano music, Guy Sacre pointed out that the middle section foreshadowed the « Gibet » in « Gaspard de la Nuit » in the same way that the piercing repeated notes did in « Les Oiseaux Tristes ». The most impressive page is « Une Barque sur l’Océan » where the play of lights on the waves is evoked with a flowing volubility. « L’Alborada del Gracioso », (the serenade of the buffoon) is as passionate as it is despairing, borrowing its incisive rhythms from the guitar. « La Vallée des Cloches », calmly closes the collection.

« Gaspard de la Nuit », was inspired by three prose poems by Aloysius Bertrand: « Ondine », « Le Gibet » and « Scarbo ». The music remains close to the texts yet at the same time transcends them, creating musical poems which are much more than a simple illustration. The flowing water in « Ondine », the tragic, relentless rhythm of « Le Gibet », the bouncing scherzo and the shadows in « Scarbo », are the piano in all its fluidity, its deep resonances and its vivacity. However, beyond the virtuosity there is this paradox, unveiled by Ravel when he confided about « Scarbo »: « I wanted to caricature romanticism… perhaps I was carried away. »

« Le Menuet sur le Nom de Haydn » (1909) created specially as part of a collective homage, « Le Menuet », « À la Manière de… Borodine », « Chabrier » (1911) and « Le Prélude », commissioned by the Paris Conservatory for a sight-reading test, are all minor works. They are none the less significant.

« Les Valses Nobles et Sentimentales », were thus commented on by their author: « The title “Les Valses Nobles et Sentimentales”, shows I intended to compose a series of waltzes like Schubert. The virtuosity at the heart of “Gaspard de la Nuit”, gave way to much clearer writing which hardened the harmonies and emphasised the contrasts in the music. “Les Valses Nobles et Sentimentales” were performed for the first time to protests and booing at a concert of the S.M.I., where the composers remained anonymous. The audience voted to attribute each piece to an author and the paternity of the waltzes was attributed to me by a small majority. The seventh seems to be the most typical. »

Concerning « Le Tombeau de Couperin » (1914-1917), Ravel only said this: « The homage was aimed more at 18th-century French music than at Couperin himself. » Besides works for the single piano, Maurice Ravel also wrote « Les Sites Auriculaires », (« Habanera et Entre Cloches ») for two pianos, works dating from 1895 and 1897, and the delightful « Suite de Ma Mère l’Oye » for four hands, in 1908 and 1910, later to become a ballet. « Frontispice » (1918) for two pianos and a fifth hand is as strange as it is brief.

Maurice Ravel’s career was one of wisdom and audacity, of faithfulness to himself and of the spirit of discovery. His style of composing for the piano, inherited from Liszt, was as economical as Chopin’s. An idea, scattered with mosaic, was developed as far as it would go, but there was a unity which rebelled against any temptation to dispersion.

Finally and above all, Life. This music, even when sad and tragic, forges ahead. Philippe Entremont understands that very well.

Jean Roy