Kazuki Yamada and the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra © Sasha Gusov
In collaboration with the Festival Printemps des Arts, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra pays tribute to the music of Maurice Ravel – the 150th anniversary of whose birth is celebrated this month. Led by Music Director, Kazuki Yamada, the Orchestra is joined by guest pianist Nelson Goerner.
Maurice Ravel was born in Ciboure, a village near the town of St Jean de Luz in France. His most famous works included the Boléro, Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess), the Rapsodie Espagnole, the ballet Daphnis et Chloé and the opera L’Enfant et les sortilèges (The Child and the Enchantments). His music was often associated with Impressionism – the avant-garde style of painting of artists such as Monet, Degas and Renoir, which had emerged around the same time – and which was initiated by composer Claude Debussy. Among the highlights of Ravel’s career were his collaboration with the Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev, for whose Ballets Russes he composed the ballet Daphnis et Chloé, and his collaboration with the French writer Colette, who was the librettist of his best known opera, L’Enfant et les sortilèges.
This concert features Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte, the Piano Concerto in G major, Une barque sur l’océan, his Concerto for the Left Hand and ends with his well-known and much loved Boléro.
The Pavane pour une infante défunte was originally written for solo piano in 1899 and dedicated to the Princess de Polignac, and transcribed by the composer in 1910 for small orchestra. The title of this piece has led to many misconceptions, but Ravel stated that he did not consider it a funeral piece but simply an evocation of the old pavan dance form that might have been danced by a princess of a bygone age.
Ravel’s gorgeously jazzy Piano Concerto in G major was among his last completed works. Written between 1928 and 1931, it was the result of the composer’s exposure to jazz during a visit to the United States, and during a time when its influence was prominent in Paris as well. The concerto characterises Ravel’s love of orchestral music, jazz, the music of Spain and the elegance of the 18th century.
Maurice Ravel 1912-1913 © Roland Manuel
Une barque sur l’océan is the third movement from Miroirs, the five-movement Suite for Solo Piano which Ravel wrote between 1904 and 1905. First performed by Ricardo Vinez in 1906, each movement of the Suite is dedicated to a member of the French avant-garde group of artists known as Les Apaches.
Ravel started composing his Piano Concerto for the Left Hand towards the end of 1929, and completed it in the fall of 1930, whilst he was writing his G major Piano Concerto. It was commissioned by Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein who had lost his right arm in the first few months of World War I, whilst serving in the Austrian army on the Russian front.
Maurice Ravel is probably most famous for his Boléro, a mesmerizing piece that, despite its simple structure, is a monumental work, due to the variations in orchestration. In its original form it was a ballet, commissioned in 1928 by the dancer Ida Rubinstein, to which she set a hypnotic and repetitive dance. The premiere, with Rubinstein in the title role, was a huge success and confirmed Boléro as one of the most recognisable pieces in the classical repertoire.
Nelson Goerner, whom Gramophone describes as “…. not only a musician who thinks deeply about his art, but an enthusiast who retains his love of his instrument, its repertoire and its exponents”, enjoys an association with both the Mozarteum Argentino in Buenos Aires and a the Chopin Institute in Warsaw. He has performed with some of the world’s major orchestras, including the Orchestre de Paris, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the London Philharmonia, Spanish National Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Mariinsky Orchestra, as well as the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, and he has also appeared at many international festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, the Verbier Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival and the BBC Proms. He has appeared in recital on some of the world’s most respected stages, including the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Philharmonie de Paris and London’s Wigmore Hall, and he is a regular guest at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. During this current season, he is touring Europe in a trio with Ning Feng and Edgar Moreau.
Kazuki Yamada leads the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, and guest artist Nelson Goerner, in a tribute to Maurice Ravel on Sunday, March 30th, in the Auditorium Rainier III, Monaco. Further information and details on reservations can be found on the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic website.
Information sourced from:
OPMC programme notes
Pavane pour une infante defunte
Piano Concerto in G major
Une barque sur l’ocean
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