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Welcome to the artissimo.gr pages of News ! 
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English Language : Classical Music : News : Summer 2002 Thursday 1 August 2002 : Maurice Ravel, as we say "sonatina for piano" ! |
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Experiences Ravel has been an impressionist - of course in a quite different manner compared with eg. Debussy - and is fairly regarded as one of the best orchestrators ever - one should just listen to "Bolero" or even "Concerto for piano in sol" to be persuaded. I would also like to say about the enormous impression his "Sonatina" for the piano has created to me when I listened to her for the first time (years ago). Later, when I started to look over the music score, the impressionistic character of the text was obvious : The first part is full of "garlands" and unembellished adornments that are "shining", whereas the second part is dominated by a sweet melancholy and a tendency to dream reminding a "calm Debussy" (I haven't yet worked on the third part of the sonatina). The most beautiful part of the whole text, anyway, in my opinion, is the beginning of the second part (which is then reiterated) : the magnificent seventh chords, having a distant relation with jazz, the use of the pedal which produces subtle harmonic effects and also the calm pace of the chords, as well as the "bold" finish of the relative subsection, all together are creating a quiet and restful atmosphere, which combined with the continuation of the part in the same character is creating a perfect middle part for the whole composition, so that this lovely piece can be interposed as an ideal slow movement between the fast first part and the even faster third part of the whole "Sonatina". Listen carefully to the entire composition and, perhaps, you will remember my words ... |
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