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Welcome to the artissimo.gr pages of News ! 
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English Language : Classical Music : News : Autumn 2002 Tuesday 10 September 2002 : Just imagine it, just imagine it ... (Ravel) ! :-) |
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Views Ravel's piano concerto in sol appears to really have a lot of friends. I have happened to listen to it on ERA-3 radio sometimes (I think this morning as well). Nevertheless, I think I have to agree with all those people (this is the music I am actually listening to while writing this actual paragraph :-) ). This composition stands out immediately for the wealth of its "ambiences" (if you can forgive me for this strange term). It's a chameleon of orchestration which is including the piano at a very privileged position - the piano, that, however, is not the absolute protagonist as is the case in other concertos (eg. those of the romantic era). Ravel - always according to the opinion of the undersigned - must be one of the best and most innovative orchestrators ever, normally giving us sound colours which are magic, unrepeatable, and, most important, unexpected ! His harmony has been affected by the jazz, but it is not actually jazz, it's a kind of personal amalgam especially successful and most characteristic. His melodies are themselves obeying to his personal idiom with great inspiration and elegance. The formula of his structures is absolutely well-tried and matches the overall "scenery" of his music. The composer's creativeness is also present in the "difficult" area of the rhythmical treatment of the various parts, where the result can be easily described as perfect. When one is listening to the beginning of the second part of the concerto, he can understand that Ravel also had the necessary dose of interiority in his works, always in the adequate - for him - quantity. Maybe, eventually, Ravel's secret is - except for his French elegance, which can be found "liberally" also in Debussy as well as in Bizet - the fact that he uses the available means always in the appropriate quantity, without redundant exaggerations, but also without ever being of a substandard level, by looking at the same time for an original way to present his music ideas. For the end - just an advice : if you happen to listen to the composition under discussion in the near future, remember to watch carefully the fantastic finish of the first part : a descending scale in a completely artificial mode (for which I haven't yet found how is called in the theory of music!), with short, abrupt "orchestral" notes which are leading to the "astonished" base of the cadence ! The duration of the entire composition is 21 minutes of unique pleasure. What are you waiting for ? Compact Disc : you grab it ! - Reproduction Appliance : you turn it on ! - Lounge Chair : you just listen ! :-) |
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