It's not British, but...Maurice Ravel's Piano Music on Danacord Vol.2

This is the second of the three volume edition of the complete solo piano music of French composer Maurice Ravel performed by Oleg Marshev. I include it  here as part of the Ravel 150 celebrations. 

Although I have written the track listings above, as reproduced in the liner notes, there is a slight problem with nomenclature. In 1912, Maurice Ravel finished his massive balletic Daphne and Chloé, a “symphonie chorégraphique,” for orchestra and wordless chorus. It was premiered in Paris on 8 June 1912 by Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet. At around the same time, Ravel extracted material to make two orchestral suites: Fragments symphoniques de ‘Daphnis et Chloé’ I (Nocturne, Interlude and Danse guerrière), 1911, commonly called Suite No. 1 and Fragments symphoniques de ‘Daphnis et Chloé’ II (Lever du jour, Pantomime and Danse générale), 1913, or Suite No. 2. These remain popular to this day.

What Oleg Marshev has recorded here is, in fact, a piano suite assembled by Ravel in 1913, from the piano reduction score of the entire ballet. The full title is Daphnis et Chloe: Fragments symphoniques and was published by Durand and Co. in 1912. It consists of three movements, Danse de Daphnis, Nocturne, Interlude and Danse guerrière, and the finale, Scène de Daphnis et Chloé. I pulled the score to follow the performance, and apart from a few embellishments, Marshev plays it precisely, giving a satisfying and attractive account. Of course, there could be another edition of this transcription around that I was unable to locate. There are some amazing Ravelian sonorities in these pages that display both technical wizardry and a deeper classical reticence. It is an important addition to the catalogue.

Some four years separate Ravel’s impressionistic Jeux d’eau (1901) from his Sonatine (1903-05). The two works could not be more different. James Gibb (Keyboard Music, ed. Denis Mathews, Pelican,1972) has suggested that this latter piece “turned away from purely sensuous washes of sound and rediscovered economic textures and the stricter shapes of sonata form.” That said, the Sonatine is no simple exercise in neo-classicism. The opening Modéré is romantic, the Minuet is full of exquisite charm, and the last movement, a toccata, displays “sensual energy” and “nostalgic sighs.” Marshev infuses his playing with passion in the opening movement, warmth in the second and dazzling brilliancy in the technical complexities of the finale.

The year 1909 was fallow for Ravel. The only work from around this time is the Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn, written to commemorate the centenary of the elder composer’s death. The “theme” is based on a translation into musical pitches of the name Haydn – B-A-D-D-G – which requires a little alphabetical manipulation. This motto theme appears 11 times, heard in retrograde and inversion. Typically, a wistful and unassuming number, it is a little unbalanced between the simplicity of the opening measures and the “more involved and overladen” second page.

Ravel’s piano masterpiece, the suite Gaspard de la Nuit was first performed in Paris, on 9 January 1909 by Ricardo Viñes. This cruel and terrible work was inspired by the prose-poems of Aloysius Bertrand. Wikipedia explains that the word Gaspard is derived from the Persian and implies "the man in charge of the royal treasures". So by implication he is the guardian of the things of the night, the very Devil himself...

The opening movement, Ondine, is justifiably the most popular, with its evocation of the watery domain of this beautiful siren, drawing men to their inevitable doom. The second, Le Gibet, is a disturbing portrait of the gallows. Scarbo, the finale, represents a scary, diabolic creature conjured up from the deepest recesses of the mind.

Any performance must reflect the callous seductiveness of Ondine, the hopeless tread of the very static march to the scaffold, with its insistent pedal note and finally, the sheer malevolent-ness of the creature conjured up in the final movement. The listener ought to be unsettled and even scared by this work. I believe that Marshev does invest Gaspard de la Nuit with sufficient cruelty and fear to make this an ideal performance.

Sadly, no details (only an oblique reference) in the liner notes are given about the two fugues. I managed to find out that the Fugue in E flat major was probably penned in 1900 and is based on a subject by the French composer, organist and music teacher, Theodore Dubois. The Fugue in D major was written for that year’s Prix de Rome. Both are classically balanced, and although the listener would not guess the composer with an innocent ear, they are anything but pedantic in their impact. I understand that Oleg Marshev has realised the original four stave scores for pianoforte.

Typically, the booklet notes are helpful and of interest. I noted the omission of a commentary on the Fugues above. It would have helped if the dates of each piece were given in the track listing. For Gaspard de la Nuit it is not provided in the booklet text.

I do wish that Danacord could have featured a more fetching cover photograph for this superb recording project: the sinister portrait of Marshev does not do justice to either the repertoire or to the performance. I have not used it in this post.

This second volume is of great interest to all Ravelians. My big discovery here was the many faceted Daphne et Chloe: Fragments symphoniques. Splendid performances of Gaspard de la Nuit and the Sonatine make this an exciting and rewarding disc. 

Track Listing:
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Danse gracieuse et légère de Daphnis (1909-12)
Fragments Symphoniques (1909-12)
Scène de Daphnis et Chloé (1909-12)
Sonatine (1903-05)
Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn (1910)
Gaspard de la nuit (1908)
Fugue in E flat major (1900)
Fugue in D major (1900)
Oleg Marshev (piano)
rec. September 2022, Cultural Institute, Milan, Italy
DANACORD DACOCD 904
With thanks to MusicWeb International where this review was first published.