Violin Sonata No. 2
1. Allegretto 
2. Blues. Moderato 
3. Perpetuum mobile. Allegro

Lyana Ysakadze – violin
Vlagimir Skanabi – piano, 1968

String Quartet in F major 
4. I. Allegro moderato – Très doux
5. II. Assez vif – Très rythmé
6. III. Très lent
7. IV. Vif et agité

Emerson String Quartet, 1995

Ravel's Sonata for violin and piano (1923-1927) at once illustrates the composer's singular sense of instrumental color in its successful exaggeration of the differences between the violin and the piano. The Sonata's genesis was interrupted by several other compositions; their imprint is evident in the work's mixture of styles, from the blues idiom of the second movement to the perpetuum mobile finale.

Ravel felt that the violin and piano are essentially incompatible instruments, and he exploits something of this friction throughout the first movement. While a gentle lyricism pervades this Allegretto, it is frequently contrasted with sharp, angular themes and highly independent part-writing. An extended cantabile passage for the violin, superimposed over the first two themes, arrives near the end of the movement, which concludes with a three-voice fugato.

While the "Blues" movement predates Ravel's trip to the United States in 1928, the composer commented on it in the course of his visit: "To my mind, the 'blues' is one of your greatest musical assets, truly American despite earlier contributory influences from Africa and Spain. Musicians have asked me how I came to write 'blues' as the second movement of my recently completed sonata for violin and piano.... While I adopted this popular form of your music, I venture to say that nevertheless it is French music, Ravel's music, that I have written. Indeed, these popular forms are but the materials of construction, and the work of art appears only on mature conception where no detail has been left to chance."

Ravel's adoption of the blues idiom is characteristicallly stylized through the addition of bitonality and timbral enrichment, though elements from "pure" jazz, such as the use of the flatted seventh and syncopated rhythms, are also prevalent. The influence of jazz upon the composer would later be more fully manifested in his two piano concerti.

In the third movement, an Allegro perpetuum mobile, the brilliance of the violin writing is contrasted with the relative simplicity of the accompaniment. The musical discourse includes thematic references to the preceding two movements, and an abbreviated reprise of the finale's opening material is underpinned by a theme from "Blues." --- Brian Wise, Rovi

The similarities between Maurice Ravel's only work for string quartet, the String Quartet in F major, and Claude Debussy's only work for string quartet, the String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10, can hardly be avoided or ignored. During the early years of his career, Ravel was frequently and sometimes vehemently criticized for having copied Debussy, and it was only later that musical society began to realize that, in the realm of piano music at least, it was equally possible that Debussy had imitated his younger colleague. With the String Quartet in F, composed in 1902 and 1903 and then revised up to 1910, however, Ravel seems more certain to have relied on Debussy's 1893 Op. 10; as emotionally, psychologically, and even structurally different as the two works are, one could never accuse them of having a language barrier. But, whereas Debussy's quartet is the work of a headstrong progressive still on his way to developing a mature, personal style, Ravel's is the work of an already mature artist more concerned with craftsmanship and traditional structure than with innovation. Not surprisingly, given their relative places in their careers when the two composers wrote their string quartets, Ravel's is the more sound piece of music and Debussy's is the more groundbreaking. Incidentally, Debussy, by all accounts, adored Ravel's piece, and though it makes the cut by just a couple of years, it is probably the most oft-played string quartet of the twentieth century. Ravel dedicated it to his teacher, Gabriel Fauré.

Ravel's String Quartet is in four movements: Moderato très doux, Assez vif-Très rythmé, Très lent, and Vif et agité. The opening movement's pianissimo second theme is as hollow and melancholy as the first theme is warm and inviting. In the second movement, which serves as the Quartet's scherzo, Ravel moves into the pizzicato world already explored by Debussy in the scherzo movement of his String Quartet; the central portion (one hesitates to call it a "trio section") calls for the players to put mutes on their instruments. Bits of music from earlier in the Quartet can be heard, wearing new clothes, in the slow movement; likewise in the finale, which plunges straight into a frantic 5/4 meter bombast at its start, lightens up in the middle, and then ends in a blaze of zeal. --- Blair Johnston, Rovi

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01. ‘I don’t want to learn my lesson’
02. ‘Has mother’s boy been good?’
03. ‘I don’t care!’
04. ‘Your humble servant, Bergère!’
05. ‘Ding, ding, ding, ding’
06. ‘How’s Your Mug?’
07. ‘What the hell, Mah-jong’
08. ‘Oh! My lovely China cup!’
09. ‘Away! I warm the good but burn the bad!’
10. ‘Farewell, Shepherdesses!’			play
11. ‘Ah! ’tis she! ’tis she!’
12. ‘You, the heart of the rose’
13. ‘Two taps run into a tank!’
14. ‘Oh! My head!’
15. Cat’s Duet
16. The Music of insects, frogs & toads, the laughter of screech-owls, a murmur of breeze & nightingales
17. ‘Ah! What happiness to find you again, Garden!’
18. ‘Where are you?’				play
19. Round Dance of the bats: ‘Give her back to me…tsk, tsk…’
20. Dance of the frogs
21. ‘Save yourself, silly! And the cage? The cage?’
22. ‘The cage, it was to see better how nimble you were’
23. ‘Ah! It’s the Child with the knife!’
24. ‘He has dressed the wound…’
25. ‘He is good, the Child, he is wise’

L'enfant - Françoise Ogéas
Maman - Jeannine Collard
La tasse chinoise - Jeannine Collard
La libellule - Jeannine Collard
La bergère - Jane Berbié
La chauve-souris - Colette Herzog
Le feu - Sylvaine Gilma
Le rossignol - Sylvaine Gilma
La princesse - Sylvaine Gilma
La chatte - Jane Berbié
L'écureuil - Jane Berbié
La chouette - Colette Herzog
Un pâtre - Jane Berbié
Une pastourelle - Colette Herzog
Le fauteuil - Heinz Rehfuss
Un arbre - Heinz Rehfuss
L'horloge comtoise - Camille Maurane
Le chat - Camille Maurane
La théière - Michel Sénéchal
La rainette - Michel Sénéchal
Le petit vieillard - Michel Sénéchal

Choeurs et Maitrise de la RTV Française
Orchestre National de la RTV Française
Lorin Maazel, 1960

The writing of L'Enfant et les sortileges kept Ravel busy for some years. It was finally completed in 1925. If L'Heure was an opera for adults, L'Enfant et sortilčges is completely different; it's a genuine children's opera, maybe best of its kind. The innocence of this opera is touching compared to the perversity of L'Heure.

The music is versatile. It is a Walt Disney fantasy by one man, Maurice Ravel, well before Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck were created. It has a great story, great music and great characters. The work is filled with imagination and magic. At the same time it is also a touching proof of the composer's true character.

It is no wonder that Lorin Maazel's recording of L'Enfant et les Sortileges won the Grand Prix International du Disque prize in 1961. It well deserves it. Every detail is taken into perfection. This is art for art. The same goes with the other works presented in this two disc set. This set is vital for the fans of Ravel's opera music, and a great way for beginners in classical music to get to know these works by the great French composer. Highly recommend. ---Joel Valkila

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Part 1
01. Introduction, 
02. Señor Torquemada, horloger de Tolède (Scène I), 
03. "Totor!" (Scène II), 
04. Il reste, voilà bien ma chance! (Scène III), 
05. "Il était temps, voici Gonzalve!" (Scène IV), 
06. "C'est fait, l'horloge est à sa place" (Scène V), 
07. "Maintenant pas de temps à perdre!" (Scène VI), 
08. Salut à la belle horlogère! (Scenes VII) 
16:26:20

Part 2
09. "Voilà! ... Et maintenant à l'autre!" (Scène VIII), 
10. "Evidemment, elle me congédie" (Scène IX), 
11. "Voilà ce que j'appelle une femme charmante" (Scène X), 
12. Monsieur! ah! Monsieur! (Scenes XI), 
13. "Enfin, il part!" (Scène XII), 
14. "Voilà l'objet!" (Scène XIII), 
15. "Ah! vous, n'est-ce pas, preste! leste!" (Scène XIV), 
16. "En dépit de cette inhumaine" (Scène XV), 
17. "Voilà ce que j'appelle une femme charmante"(Scène XVI), 
18. Oh! la pitoyable aventure! (Scène XVII) 
17:22:65

Part 3
19. Voilà! ... Et maintenant, Senora, je suis prêt (Scène XVIII), 
20. "Mon oeil anxieux interroge" (Scène XIX), 
21. Adieu, cellule, adieu, donjon!, 
22. Il n'est pour l'horloger (Scenes XX), 
23. "Pardieu, déménageur, vous venez à propos!" (Scène XXI), 
24. Un financier ... et un poète... 
11:54:20

Suzanne Danco (Concepción, soprano), 
Paul Derenne (Gonsalve, ténor), 
Michel Hamel (Torquemada, ténor), 
Heinz Rehfuss (Ramiro, baryton), 
André Vessieres (Don Iñigo Gomez, basse)

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Ernest Ansermet - conductor
Genève,  Victoria-Hall,  19.05.-01.06.53

Ravel's opera L'heure espagnole, completed in 1909, was his first work for the stage, and it richly exhibits the irony and refined humor that graced his Histoires naturelles. The vehicle for Ravel's sophisticated, convoluted humor is the quasi-parlando vocal line, a singing technique that combines elements of speech; not only is the effect a bit unreal, but the technique enables the composer to literally blend speech and music, often using purely musical effects to emphasize the narrative's comic point. Based on a play by Franc Nohain, L'heure espagnole is a parodic improvisation on the paradoxical and mysterious nature of time. Taking place in a watchmaker's shop, the story centers on his wife's grotesquely transparent ploys to get her husband out of the way so she can pursue a series of amorous trysts. In calling his opera The Spanish Hour, Ravel openly ridicules the perennial complaint of lovers whose time always seems to flow faster. Ravel only sees this hour as a framework to contain -- if possible -- a torrent of ridiculous events. Obviously, even time itself is ridiculous. The characters' names, too, are comical: the foolish watchmaker is called Torquemada (a grotesque reference to the cruel Torquemada of Spanish Inquisition "fame"). So, while Torquemada is away fixing clocks, his wife entertains her paramours. When Torquemada returns, the other characters hide in clocks or pretend to be customers. The burlesque climax of the opera is an amazing quintet of all of the characters poking fun at each other. In this work, Ravel indulges a fascination with mechanical devices that he inherited from his Swiss father, who was an engineer. L'heure espagnole opens with an introduction, a masterfully suggestive evocation of a hallucinatory world of ticking clocks and human-like automatons. Another fascination is Spain. Claiming Basque heritage, Ravel often turned to Spain for inspiration. But Ravel's Spain is an idealized, stylized realm, an imaginary world that only vaguely resembles the physical place. Thus, Ravel's Spanish, which sounds vaguely Hispanic, has no other source than Ravel's mind. And in this work, like in other Spanish compositions, Ravel revels in his prodigious talents as a colorist, using a variety of brass and percussion instruments to create the richly atmospheric background of the ridiculous and often frantic events. The opera concludes with a Habanera; true, the rhythms are Spanish, but the essence of this concluding dance, with its bright energy and vaguely modal melodic lines, brings the fantastic Spain of Ravel's imagination to brilliant life. --- Zoran Minderovic, Rovi

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CD1
1.Menuet antique [6'29]
2Pavane pour une infante défunte [7'04]
Sonatine
3.Modéré [4'39]
4.Mouvement de menuet [3'13]
5.Animé [4'02]
Valses nobles et sentimentales
6.Modéré – très franc [1'19]
7.Assez lent [2'42]
8.Modéré [1'17]
9.Assez animé [1'14]
10.Presque lent [1'26]
11.Vif [0'39]
12.Moins vif [3'06]
13.Epilogue: Lent [5'17]
Le Tombeau de Couperin
14.Prélude [3'07]
15.Fugue [3'27]
16.Forlane [5'44]
17.Rigaudon [3'15]
18.Menuet [6'01]
19.Toccata [4'08]

CD2
1.Sérénade grotesque [3'53]
2.Jeux d’eau [5'42]
Gaspard de la nuit
3.Ondine [6'41]
4.Le Gibet [7'23]
5.Scarbo [9'24]
6.Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn [2'00]
7.Prélude [1'25]
8.A la manière de Borodine [1'37]
9.A la manière de Chabrier [2'13]
Miroirs
10Noctuelles [5'00]
11.Oiseaux tristes [4'21]
12.Une barque sur l’océan [7'30]
13.Alborada del gracioso [6'44]
14.La vallée des cloches [6'10]

Angela Hewitt - piano

Recorded in tje Reitstadel, Neumarkt, Germany, on 20-23 March 2000 and Henry Wood Hall, London, on 11-14 August 2001

Taking time off from her definitive series of J.S. Bach recordings, Angela Hewitt here brings us the complete solo piano music of Ravel. Anyone who wondered whether this seemingly dyed-in-the wool Bachian might stumble should rest assured: this is a stunning double-disc. As Hewitt makes clear in her characteristically illuminating liner notes, Stravinsky's jibe that Ravel was "only a Swiss clock-maker" was hopelessly off the mark. "One doesn't need to open one's chest to show that one has a heart," said Ravel, and in these often understated recordings, one is made to feel his point powerfully. "Scarbo" is all the more dramatic through the suppressed excitement Hewitt's playing exudes. "Ondine" and "Le Gibet" are at once immaculately controlled and intensely atmospheric. In addition to those works most frequently played, we also get rarities, like "Sérénade grotesque," written when Ravel was 18, and not published until 1975. As Hewitt points out, Ravel's favorite composer was Mozart, and she plays him with a Mozartean subtlety of nuance. ---Michael Church, Editorial Reviews

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01. Part One: Intro Et Danse Religieuse
02. Part One: Scene-Danse Generale
03. Part One: Scene-Danse Grotesque De Dorcon
04. Part One: Danse Legere Et Gracieux De Daphnis
05. Part One: Scene-Danse De Lyceion-Scene (Les Pirates)
06. Part One: Nocturne-Danse Lente Et Mysterieuse
07. Part Two: Intro
08. Part Two: Danse Guerriere
09. Part Two: Scene-Danse Suppliante De Chloe
10. Part Three: Lever Du Jour-Scene
11. Part Three: Pantomine
12. Part Three: Danse Generale
13. La Valse

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Pierre Boulez – conductor

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Pierre Boulez – conductor

Daphnis et Chloé is a ballet with music by Maurice Ravel. Ravel described it as a "symphonie choréographique" (choreographic symphony). The scenario was adapted by Michel Fokine from an eponymous romance by the Greek writer Longus thought to date from around the 2nd century AD. Scott Goddard published a contemporary commentary that discussed the changes to the story that Fokine made to prepare a workable ballet scenario. The story concerns the love between the goatherd Daphnis and the shepherdess Chloé. The ballet is in one act and three scenes.

Ravel began work on the score in 1909 after a commission from Sergei Diaghilev. It was premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris by his Ballets Russes on June 8, 1912. The orchestra was conducted by Pierre Monteux, the choreography was by Michel Fokine, and Vaslav Nijinsky and Tamara Karsavina danced the parts of Daphnis and Chloe. Léon Bakst designed the original sets.

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Piano Concerto in G major
1. Allegro
2. Adagio assai
3. Presto

4. Alborada del Gracioso
5. Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

Joaquin Achucarro – piano
Euskadi Symphony Orchestra (Basque National Orchestra)
Gilbert Varga – conductor

Recorded San Sebastian, Miramon September 2000, June 2001

There is no shortage of recommendable recordings of the Ravel Concertos. In the G major whether the approach is of lambent understanding or of exotic filigree, of neo-classicism explored or the artificial exposed there’s a performance to suit every taste. Joaquín Achucarro joined forces with Gilbert Varga and the Euskadi Symphony Orchestra for a South American tour and this recording is the result of their sympathetic collaboration; perhaps the more so as this, the Basque National Orchestra, – Euskera is the name of the Basque language - and Ravel were born in the French Basque town of Ciboure.

There’s nothing gestural about the playing and the orchestra is especially attentive to some of Ravel’s more flagrant orchestration. Achucarro neither overplays nor underplays the jazz element in the work and remains essentially true to Ravel’s stated dictum that the concerto was light-hearted and brilliant without the aim of profundity of utterance. This is especially true in the adagio assai where there is no hint of a smooth cantabile from the pianist; the music never congeals to mere gorgeousness and the playing is alive to harmonic potential; what is undeniably missing is the feeling of limpid lyricism that this movement often draws out of pianists, the sense of an evolving song, a suspension or rapture that moves inexorably toward orchestral interjection. There is some notably fine and blowsy-bluesy woodwind playing in the finale – generous, evocative but not vulgarly over personalized.

Many of these characteristics apply equally to the Concerto for the Left Hand where Achucarro meets the considerable virtuoso demands with no little skill; he catches the fragmentary, refractory quality of the music its fusion and reconciliation of popular and jazz elements with nostalgia as he does the final disturbing cadences which are more properly reflective of man’s experience in war (the concerto of course having been written for Paul Wittgenstein who had lost his right arm in the War). There is also Ravel’s 1919 orchestration of Alborada del Gracioso, originally written for piano in 1905. Colourful, charged, beautifully orchestrated it is a welcome interludium before the Left Hand Concerto’s darker impulse. A nice touch – orchestral players are mentioned by name in the notes for their particular contributions. --- Jonathan Woolf, musicweb-international.com

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Maurice Ravel: L'heure espagnole, M. 52

Introduction
Scene 1: Senor Torquemada, horloger de Tolede? (Ramiro, Torquemada)
Scene 2: Totor! (Concepcion, Torquemada, Ramiro)
Scene 3: Il reste, voila bien ma chance! (Concepcion, Ramiro, Gonzalve)
Scene 4: Il etait temps, voici Gonzalve! (Concepcion, Gonzalve)
Scene 5: C'est fait, l'horloge est a sa place (Ramiro, Concepcion, Gonzalve)
Scene 6: Maintenant pas de temps a perdre! (Concepcion, Gonzalve)
Scene 7: Salut a la belle horlogere! (Inigo, Concepcion)
Scene 8: Voila!… Et maintenant a l'autre!… (Ramiro, Concepcion, Inigo)
Scene 9: Evidemment, elle me congedie (Inigo)
Scene 10: Voila ce que j'appelle une femme charmante (Ramiro)
Scene 11: Monsieur, ah! Monsieur! (Concepcion, Ramiro)
Scene 12: Enfin, il part! (Inigo, Concepcion)
Scene 13: Voila l'objet! Que faut-il que j'en fasse? (Ramiro, Concepcion, Inigo)
Scene 14: Ah! vous, n'est-ce pas, preste! (Concepcion, Gonzalve)
Scene 15: En depit de cette inhumaine (Gonzalve)
Scene 16: Voila ce que j'appelle une femme charmante (Ramiro, Concepcion)
Scene 17: Oh! la pitoyable aventure! (Concepcion, Gonzalve)
Scene 18: Voila!… Et maintenant, Senora, je suis pret (Ramiro, Concepcion)
Scene 19: Mon oeil anxieux interroge (Inigo, Gonzalve)
Scene 20: Il n'est, pour l'horloger, de joie egale (Torquemada, Inigo, Gonzalve)
Scene 21: Pardieu, demenageur, vous venez a propos! (Inigo, Torquemada, Ramiro, Concepcion, Gonzalve)

Maurice Ravel: Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, M. 84

No. 1. Chanson romanesque
No. 2. Chanson epique
No. 3. Chanson a boire

Isabelle Druet, Mezzosopran – Concepción
Luca Lombardo, Tenor – Torquemada
Frédéric Antoun, Tenor – Gonzalve
Marc Barrard, Bariton – Ramiro
Nicolas Courjal, Bass – Don Inigo Gomez
François  Le Roux, Bariton – Don Quichotte
Orchestre National de Lyon
Leonard Slatkin – conductor

Leonard Slatkin is an exceptionally versatile conductor, but it is perhaps in French repertoire of the 19th and 20th centuries that he feels most comfortable. The singers in Ravel's exquisitely formed little comic opera L'Heure espagnole, complete with cheating lovers hidden inside grandfather's clocks carried up and down stairs, are all entirely appropriate and admirably clear, but it is really Slatkin who's the star here, right from the "Introduction" that's so artfully linked to what follows. Ravel here cultivates a kind of updated accompanied recitative, well matched to his stated goal of reviving the old tradition of Italian opera buffa. The dialogue seems straightforward, but it is subtly and considerably heightened by the music in ways that may be clear to the listener only in retrospect. Sample the sly "Salut à la belle Horlogère!" (track eight) for a taste of how Slatkin holds the entire scene, orchestra and singing of mezzo-soprano Isabelle Druet, in the palm of his hand, and of the light sexiness in the opera embodied in the afternoon-delight-seeking Concepción. A bonus is the set of three Don Quichotte à Dulcinée songs, the last work Ravel completed. Highly recommended and absolutely delightful. ---James Manheim, AllMusic Reviews

This is a companion disc to Slatkin’s recording of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortileges I reviewed here earlier. Like that CD this account of L’Heure espagnole has strengths and weaknesses in equal measure. As in L’Enfant, the orchestra plays a role at least equal to that of the singers and here is where this new recording excels. I have more reservations about the vocal soloists, as I did on the earlier disc.

L’Heure espagnole is farcical, but Ravel’s sense of comedy also contains a certain elegance that is essential for the work to attain its appeal. Both Marc Barrard, as Ramiro, and Nicolas Courjal as Don Iñigo, as the banker, are over-projected. Barrard’s heavy vibrato quickly wears and while Nicolas Courjal suits the pompous nature of his character, he too is a bit overdone. Some distance in the recording would help, but everything is close-up and present. The other characters are better portrayed, especially Luca Lombardo’s Torquemada and Isabelle Druet as his wife. Frédéric Antoun’s Gonzalve is also good as the self-regarding and ridiculous poet, until you compare him with some of his predecessors in the role. On the other hand, the Lyon orchestra leaves little to be desired and Slatkin clearly appreciates the score, capitalizing on the Spanish elements. No detail in Ravel’s wonderful orchestration is missed and Slatkin’s tempos are perfectly judged. Everything comes across vividly but is it all a bit too vivid? As with the singing, there are times when a bit of distance would have been advantageous.

For comparison I went back to two previous favourites: Lorin Maazel’s 1965 recording with the Orchestre National, Paris, and a superlative cast consisting of Jane Berbié, Gabriel Bacquier, José van Dam, Jean Giraudeau and Michel Sénéchal; and Gianandrea Noseda’s BBC Philharmonic account from the 2 August 2002 BBC Proms that was issued as a cover CD with BBC Music Magazine. Noseda’s cast was headed by Sarah Connolly as Concepción and Jean-Paul Fouchécourt as Torquemada. I listened to the Maazel through the pops and clicks of my old LP and even there could appreciate the subtleties beneath the score’s surface. Noseda’s account is nearly as good with idiomatic singing and an excellent orchestral accompaniment. Being recorded before a live audience also helps and their clearly audible laughter only adds to the enjoyment of the experience. The music comes across vividly, but at a more natural distance than with Slatkin’s production team. In any case, more so than L’Enfant et les sortilèges, this opera ideally needs the visual element to be fully enjoyable. The physical nature of the farce, with the male characters hiding in the large clocks and the muleteer carrying them up and down the stairs demands to be seen and not just heard. There are two videos containing both of Ravel’s operas that are recommendable, both Glyndebourne productions: Simon Rattle’s designed by Maurice Sendak on a Warner DVD and more recently Kazushi Ono’s award-winning one both on DVD and Blu-ray (FRA Musica). Dave Billinge designated the latter as a Recording of the Month.

A substantial bonus offered on the CD under review is the last of Ravel’s compositions, Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, which was originally commissioned for a new film version of the Cervantes novel. Instead, four songs by Jacques Ibert were used in place of Ravel’s three. Still, the songs, continuing the Spanish theme of the programme, are colourful in their depiction of the Quixote character, by turns heroic and tender. One would think the celebrated baritone François Le Roux to be the ideal interpreter of these songs. Unfortunately, his voice turns blustery and effortful whenever the volume increases, which is only exacerbated by the close recording.

So, despite the appreciable talent and dedication that went into making these recordings, I can endorse this CD only as a supplement to other versions. Naxos has provided an attractive booklet with good notes and a detailed synopsis of the opera’s action scene by scene, but no text or translation. The listener is directed to the company’s website for the libretto in French only. ---Leslie Wright, musicweb-international.com

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1. Prélude: Très lent 03:28
2. 1.Danse du rouet et Scène – Allegro 03:41
3. 2.Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant.Lent - Allegro - Mouvement de Valse modéré 02:21
4. 3.Les Entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête.Mouvement de Valse modéré 05:00
5. 4.Petit Poucet.Très modéré 03:20
6. Interlude 01:35
7. 5.Laideronnette,Impératrice des pagodes.Mouvement de marche - Allegro - Très modéré 05:09
8. Apothéose:Le Jardin féerique.Lent et grave 03:29
9. Très souple de rythme 07:59
10. Assez vif 07:30
11. 1. Prélude à la nuit 04:23
12. 2. Malagueña 02:09
13. 3. Habanera 03:27
14. 4. Feria 06:40
15. Boléro - Orchestral version 14:58

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Pierre Boulez - conductor

The Berlin Philharmonic never has had much opportunity to play Ravel, which is a pity because under Pierre Boulez they do it extremely well. Under their current music director, Claudio Abbado, the orchestra more often than not sounds positively comatose. How gratifying then, that with a dynamic conductor and music that's fun to play, they rouse themselves to sound like the world-class ensemble they really can be when they're not resting on their laurels. Boléro is really smashing, with a knockout final cadence, and the solo players in all of these works cover themselves with glory. This is a great Ravel disc. ---David Hurwitz, Editorial Reviews

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Sheherazade
1 	Asie
2 	La Flûte Enchantée
3 	L'Indifférent

Trois Poémes De Stephane Mallarme
4 	Soupir
5 	Placet Futile
6 	Surgi De La Croupe Et Du Bond

Chansons Madecasses
7 	Nahandove
8 	Aoua!
9 	Il Est Doux

Don Quichotte À Dulcinée
10 	Chanson Romanesque
11 	Chanson Épique
12 	Chanson À Boire

Cinq Mélodies Populaires Grèques
13 	Le Réveil De La Mariée
14 	Là-Bas Vers L'Église
15 	Quel Galant!
16 	Chansons Des Cueilleuses De Lentisques
17 	Tout Gai!

Heather Harper – soprano (1-3)
Jill Gomez – soprano (4-6)
José Van Dam – baritone (10-17)
David Butt – flute (1-3)
Alain Marion – flute (7-9)
Philippe Muller – cello (7-9)
Pierre-Laurent Aimard – piano (7-9)

B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra
Pierre Boulez - conductor

This thoroughly recommendable issue is most welcome on CD, where its appreciable attributes can be even more clearly heard. Each singer has been carefully chosen for his or her task, and the contrast in timbres is, for the most part, illuminating. My single reservation concerns Heather Harper whom I now find a little cool for Sheherazade, in spite of the obvious distinction of her phrasing, but then this cycle isn't that well suited to Boulez's talents for stereoscopic precision and minute calculation. The other three singers have hardly been bettered as interpreters of their songs, and Boulez and his BBC and Parisian colleagues play throughout with delicacy combined with pinpoint accuracy. The recordings, made at different times in the 1970s and 1980s, are finely balanced. So I am as enthusiastic about the disc as I was back in 1984, if not more so. -- Gramophone [4/1987], arkivmusic.com

Pierre Boulez was a French composer, conductor, writer and pianist and is one of the leading and most influential composers and thinkers of his generation. He was born in Montbrison, Loire, France on 26th March 1925 and began piano lessons as a child, showing ability in both music and mathematics early on. After briefly studying the latter in Lyon, Boulez attended the Paris Conservatoire and studied with Olivier Messiaen and Andrée Vaurabourg (wife of Arthur Honegger). Messiaen introduced Boulez to twelve-tone technique and using this Boulez began to compose atonally in a post-Webernian style. His works and writings pushed the previous boundaries of abstraction and experimentation to new levels.

After taking his serialist ideas to their absolute limit in Structures, book I for two pianos, among other works, Boulez received much criticism about the work. Boulez felt that the language was limited in its expressive capability and that combined with the negative reception led Boulez to rethink his compositional language. The music that followed was less strict in its serialism but more gesture based and expressively flexible. The first particularly ground-breaking work in this new style was Le marteau sans maître (The Hammer without a Master) for ensemble and voice.

Following this work, Boulez became much more experimental, working with improvisatory music and leaving aspects of the music such as the ordering of movements or sections of pieces to be chosen by the performer on the night of a performance; this was likely influenced by Karlheinz Stockhausen’s ideas of polyvalent form and aleatoric (chance) music. Boulez has also had a significant career as a conductor, having conducted a large range of world-class ensembles.

He died on 5 January 2016, at his home in Baden-Baden, at the age of 90. He had been ill for some time and had been unable to take part in the many celebrations, held across the world, for his 90th birthday.

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CD 1: 

Boléro
1.Tempo di Bolero moderato assai
14:25

Rapsodie espagnole
2. Prélude à la nuit
3. Malagueña
4. Habanera
5. Feria

Ma mère l'oye
Orchestral version

6.Prélude
7.Danse du rouet et scène - Interlude
8.Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant
9.Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête
10.Petit Poucet
11.Laideronnette, Impératrice des Pagodes
12.Apothéose: Le jardin féerique

Pavane pour une infante défunte

13.Lent

CD 2: 

Daphnis et Chloé
Ballet en 3 parties (complete)
Première partie

1.Introduction. Lent - (chiffre 3) Entrent des jeunes gens - (chiffre 4) Très modéré
2.Danse religieuse. Modéré
3.(chiffre 10) Tout au fond - (3 en avant chiffre 11) Chloé le rejoint - Un peu plus lent - (2 en avant chiffre 16) Emotion douse
4.Vif (chiffre 17) - Les jeunes filles attirent Daphnis
5.(chiffre 21) A ce moment, elle est entraînée dans la danse des jeunes gens.
6.Danse générale - Beaucoup moins vif
7.Vif - Plus modéré - Très modéré - Pesant - qui termine
8.Assez lent - (chiffre 51) Tous invitent Daphnis - Vif
9.Lent - Moins lent - Très libre
10.Très modéré - Plus lent - 1er Mouvement
11.Modérément animé - (chiffre 63)Au second plan - Un peu plus animé (chiffre 66)Elle se jette - Très animé - Lent - Très agitè
12.Modéré - La 2e Nymphe - La 3me Nymphe - Plus lent
13.Lent et très souple de mesure - (chiffre 78)1er Mouve- ment - Plus lent - (chiffre 80)1er Mouvement - (ch.81) Peu à peu - (ch.82) Daphnis se posterne suppliant

Deuxième partie

14.Même mesure - (chiffre 88) Des appels de trompes - Une lueur sourde
15.Animé et très rude (chiffre 92) -(Au camp des pirates)
16.Un peu moins animé
17.Très rude - (chiffre 132)Bryaxis lui ordonne - Modéré - Animé - Assez lent - Animé - Lent
18.Assez animé - (2 en chiffre 143) Le chef l'emporte
19.Lent-Modére - (2 en anvant chiffre 146) Par endroits - (1 en avant chiffre 147) Cà et là -(chiffre 149) Les chèvres-pieds - (2 en chiffre 152) - (chiffre 153)

Troisième partie

20.Lent - (chiffre 156)Peu à peu - (chiffre 160)Un autre berger - (3 en avant chiffre 163)Entre un groupe - (1 en avant chiffre 165)Elle apparaît - (chiffre 166)
21.(chiffre 179)Le vieux berger - Lent - (chiffre 173) Daphnis: Pan apparaît - Au Mouvement - (chiffre 175) Désepéré, il arrache
22.Très lent - En animant toujours
23.Lent - Animé - Lent - Animé
24.(chiffre 199)Danse générale - (2 en chiffre 204) Danse de Daphnis et Chloé - (chiffre 206) Danse de Dorcon

Valses nobles et sentimentales

25.1. Modéré - très franc
26.2. Assez lent - avec une expression intense
27.3. Modéré
28.4. Assez animé
29. Presque lent - dans un sentiment intime1:00
30.6. Assez vif
31.7. Moins vif
32.8. Epilogue (Lent)

CD 3: 

Le tombeau de Couperin
Orchestral version

1.1. Prélude
2.2. Forlane
3.3. Menuet
4.4. Rigaudon

Alborada del gracioso
5.Assez vif

Shéhérazade - Ouverture de féerie
6.Modéré

Menuet antique
for Orchestra
7.Maestoso

Une barque sur l'océan
8.Très souple de rythme

Fanfare from "L'Eventail de Jeanne"
9.Allegro moderato
La Valse

10.Mouvement de valse viennoise

London Symphony Orchestra
Claudio Abbado – conductor

While Abbado isn't my favorite Ravel conductor, he turned in some outstanding performances with the London Symphony Orchestra. I've never heard such a more clear-headed, clean cut version of "Daphnis et Chloe." I own around 22 versions of the complete ballet and this one is definitely in my "top 5." Abbado also does a great job with the some of the other orchestral works like "Le Tombeau de Couperin," "Menuet antique," and "Ma mère l'oye" to name a few that get great readings. Now why I'm subtracting a star is simple: these performances don't wipe my mind of Boulez, Martinon, Dutoit, or Tortlier and I felt that Abbado could have reached deeper. I own every set of Ravel's orchestral works. I also own almost every single one-shot recordings that have been released by various conductors and orchestras: Haitink, Barenboim, Maazel, Karajan, Previn, etc.

If you're familiar with Ravel's orchestral music and don't know where to start, then pick this set up. This is a great introduction. While these aren't the deepest readings I've heard, they are very honest and well performed. --- J. Rich, amazon.com

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