Raves for Ravel!
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
Raves for Ravel! “M. Ravel refuses the Legion of Honour, but all his music accepts it,” said Erik Satie, obviously a fan. We are too, and so we bring you two (Ravels, that is).
Ravel is said to have given his “Pavane pour une Infante défunte” (Pavane for a Dead Princess) that name because he liked the way the words sounded together, not because of what they meant. Whatever. Almost everyone likes the way the notes sound together, so we begin with Jean Martinon conducting the Orchestre de Paris in the composer’s own orchestration of what started life as a work for solo piano. Later, the piano will be the star, when we bring you his G-Minor Concerto, Jean-Yves Thibaudet doing the honors, while Charles Dutoit conducts the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Was there ever a more glorious middle movement?
Meanwhile, we will have heard violinist Augustin Dumay and pianist Maria João Pires work wonders with Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 2 and Murray Perahia as soloist and conductor of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 4.
Tobias Picker’s “Old and Lost Rivers” gets found in two incarnations during our second hour: first as a solo piano work played by Christoph Eschenbach; and second, as an orchestral piece with that same Christoph Eschenbach conducting the Houston Symphony. A river rises again when Marian Anderson sings “Deep River” (and some other things as well).
Paul McCreesh and the Gabrielli Consort and Players bring us a remarkable compilation of music for the Duke of Lerma as a Vespers and Salve Service might have been celebrated in the Spain of 1617. Glazunov’s Concerto for Sax and Strings in E-flat and Haydn’s Piano Trio No. 27 help us wind down the evening. G’night, all!
