https:\/\/philippeentremont.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMaurice Ravel\u2019s Piano Music<\/h4>\n
Philippe Entremont did not want the \u00ab In\u00e9dits \u00bb to appear on his recording of the complete Piano works of Maurice Ravel as they did not live up to the composer\u2019s own desire for perfection.
\nIn his \u00ab Esquisse Autobiographique \u00bb, Maurice Ravel briefly mentioned \u00ab La S\u00e9r\u00e9nade Grotesque \u00bb, adding \u00ab In 1895 I wrote my first published work for piano, \u201cLe Menuet Antique\u201d [and] \u201cLa Habanera\u201d. I believe that this work contains, in an embryonic form, several elements of what would predominate in my later compositions. \u00bb<\/p>\n
In \u00ab Le Menuet Antique \u00bb, composed in 1895 and published in 1899, and in \u00ab La Pavane pour Une Enfante D\u00e9funte \u00bb, composed in 1899 and published the following year, the influence of Emmanuel Chabrier can still be seen. In \u00ab La Pavane \u00bb the melody is bewitching and has marvellously withstood the test of time.<\/p>\n
\u00ab Les Jeux d\u2019Eaux \u00bb (1901), according to Maurice Ravel in his \u00ab Esquisse Autobiographique \u00bb, \u00ab 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. \u00bb<\/p>\n
\u00ab La Sonatine \u00bb (1903-1905) is made up of three movements: Mod\u00e9r\u00e9, Mouvement de menuet, Anim\u00e9. 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, \u00ab very expressive\u2026 passionate. \u00bb<\/p>\n
With \u00ab Les Miroirs \u00bb, a new step was taken. Again quoting from \u00ab L\u2019Esquisse Autobiographique \u00bb, \u00ab Les Miroirs \u00bb, 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, \u00ab Les Oiseaux Tristes \u00bb. \u00ab I evoke birds lost in the torpor of a very dark forest during the hottest part of the summer. \u00bb<\/p>\n
\u00ab Les Noctuelles \u00bb (grey or brown moths) is like the musical equivalent of a sentence by L\u00e9on-Paul Fargue: \u00ab The moths in the barn fly awkwardly away to hang onto other beams. \u00bb<\/p>\n
In his book on piano music, Guy Sacre pointed out that the middle section foreshadowed the \u00ab Gibet \u00bb in \u00ab Gaspard de la Nuit \u00bb in the same way that the piercing repeated notes did in \u00ab Les Oiseaux Tristes \u00bb. The most impressive page is \u00ab Une Barque sur l\u2019Oc\u00e9an \u00bb where the play of lights on the waves is evoked with a flowing volubility. \u00ab L\u2019Alborada del Gracioso \u00bb, (the serenade of the buffoon) is as passionate as it is despairing, borrowing its incisive rhythms from the guitar. \u00ab La Vall\u00e9e des Cloches \u00bb, calmly closes the collection.<\/p>\n
\u00ab Gaspard de la Nuit \u00bb, was inspired by three prose poems by Aloysius Bertrand: \u00ab Ondine \u00bb, \u00ab Le Gibet \u00bb and \u00ab Scarbo \u00bb. 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 \u00ab Ondine \u00bb, the tragic, relentless rhythm of \u00ab Le Gibet \u00bb, the bouncing scherzo and the shadows in \u00ab Scarbo \u00bb, 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 \u00ab Scarbo \u00bb: \u00ab I wanted to caricature romanticism\u2026 perhaps I was carried away. \u00bb<\/p>\n
\u00ab Le Menuet sur le Nom de Haydn \u00bb (1909) created specially as part of a collective homage, \u00ab Le Menuet \u00bb, \u00ab \u00c0 la Mani\u00e8re de\u2026 Borodine \u00bb, \u00ab Chabrier \u00bb (1911) and \u00ab Le Pr\u00e9lude \u00bb, commissioned by the Paris Conservatory for a sight-reading test, are all minor works. They are none the less significant.<\/p>\n
\u00ab Les Valses Nobles et Sentimentales \u00bb, were thus commented on by their author: \u00ab The title \u201cLes Valses Nobles et Sentimentales\u201d, shows I intended to compose a series of waltzes like Schubert. The virtuosity at the heart of \u201cGaspard de la Nuit\u201d, gave way to much clearer writing which hardened the harmonies and emphasised the contrasts in the music. \u201cLes Valses Nobles et Sentimentales\u201d 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. \u00bb<\/p>\n
Concerning \u00ab Le Tombeau de Couperin \u00bb (1914-1917), Ravel only said this: \u00ab The homage was aimed more at 18th-century French music than at Couperin himself. \u00bb Besides works for the single piano, Maurice Ravel also wrote \u00ab Les Sites Auriculaires \u00bb, (\u00ab Habanera et Entre Cloches \u00bb) for two pianos, works dating from 1895 and 1897, and the delightful \u00ab Suite de Ma M\u00e8re l\u2019Oye \u00bb for four hands, in 1908 and 1910, later to become a ballet. \u00ab Frontispice \u00bb (1918) for two pianos and a fifth hand is as strange as it is brief.<\/p>\n
Maurice Ravel\u2019s 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\u2019s. 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.<\/p>\n
Finally and above all, Life. This music, even when sad and tragic, forges ahead. Philippe Entremont understands that very well.<\/p>\n
Jean Roy<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Extraits \/ Excerpts<\/strong><\/p>\n
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