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RAVEL: Rapsodie Espagnole / La Valse / Daphnis et Chloe

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RAVEL: Rapsodie Espagnole / La Valse / Daphnis et Chloe

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Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937) Rapsodie espagnole Pavane pour une infante defunte La Valse Daphnis et Chloe (Suite No.2) The French composer Maurice Ravel...

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Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937)

Rapsodie espagnole

Pavane pour une infante defunte

La Valse

Daphnis et Chloe (Suite No.2)

The French composer Maurice Ravel inherited from his mother, of Basque origin, a strong interest in Spain, tempered by the precise attention to detail inherited from his father, a Swiss-born engineer. Spanish influence appeared in the first of his two operas, L'heure espagnole, in the piano piece, published in 1905 as part of Miroirs, Alborada del gracioso, in the famous Habanera and indeed in the very choice of title for the enormously popular Pavane pour une infante defunte. Later in life the ballet tour de force Bolero provided an opportunity for virtuosity of orchestration, with a Spanish flavour, and one of his last compositions was the setting of three Don Quixote songs for a film in which the Russian singer Shalyapin was to star.

The Rapsodie espagnole

was completed in 1908 and consists of four movements, the evocative Prelude � la nuit, Malaguena, Habanera, based on an earlier work for piano, and Feria. This was Ravel's first major orchestral work, a demonstration of his originality and of his gifts as an orchestrator. The music moves from the stillness of night to two characteristic Spanish dances and a final Spanish fiesta.

The Pavane pour une infante defunte was originally a piano piece, written in 1899. Its title, chosen, it seems, after the piece had been written, couples a Spanish element with a nostalgia for the past very typical of the turn of the century. Ravel orchestrated the piece in 1910, when it was used for a ballet.

The po�me choreographique La Valse was written in response to a commission from Sergey Dyagilev, who rejected the work. Completed in1920, it was eventually used in the theatre in 1929 by Ida Rubinstein's company, with choreography by Nijinsky's sister and designs by Benois. Coming as it does after the final dissolution of the Habsburg Empire, La Valse seems again to suggest a vanished world, the mysterious evocation of an epoch that was gone, a masque in the imagination of an Edgar Allan Poe.

The symphonie choreographique Daphnis et Chloe is based on the Hellenistic novel by Longus, a Greco-Roman writer about whom nothing is known. His pastoral romance, set on the island of Lesbos, deals with the love, forced parting and final happiness of the shepherd Daphnis and the shepherdess Chloe, abducted by pirates, but eventually united again with Daphnis, their union a subject of general rejoicing, under the inspiration of the shepherd god Pan. Ravel drew two orchestral suites from the original score, the second of them in 1912, the year in which Dyagilev's Ballets russes performed the work at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, with designs by Bakst, choreography by Fokin and the two title roles danced by Karsavina and Nijinsky. The scandal surrounding the latter's performance in his ballet using Debussy's pastoral L'apres-midi d'un faune overshadowed Ravel's ballet, which lacked the necessary ingredients of a succes de scandale, while celebrating again a long-vanished world, evoked in vivid and moving orchestral colours, subtly enhanced by the use of an added chorus.

Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)

The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava), the oldest symphonic ensemble in Slovakia, was founded in 1929. The orchestra's first conductor was František Dyk and over the past sixty years it has worked under the batons of several prominent Czech and Slovak conductors.

The orchestra has made many recordings for NAXOS ranging from the ballet music of Tchaikovsky to more modern works by composers such as Copland, Britten & Prokofiev. For Marco Polo the orchestra has recorded works by Glazunov, Gliere, Rubinstein and other post-romantic composers.

Kenneth Jean

Associate Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Florida Symphony Orchestra, Kenneth Jean is a young conductor making his presence known both nationally and internationally. Born in New York City, he grew up in Hong Kong and returned to the United States in 1967 to live in San Francisco. After violin studies at San Francisco State University, he entered the Juilliard School at the age of 19 and was accepted into the conducting class of Jean Morel. The following year, he made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of New York and was immediately engaged as the orchestra's Music Director.

From 1979 until 1985 Kenneth Jean served as Resident Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Previously, he was the Conducting Assistant of the Cleveland Orchestra for two seasons.

He has recorded works by Mendelssohn. Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Falla, Albeniz and Ravel for Naxos, and Chinese contemporary works for HK.

Disc 1

Rapsodie espagnole

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Maurice Ravel
Conducted by: Kenneth Jean
Recording date: September 1988
Produced by: Sauer, Martin

Prelude a la nuit - 4:08
Malaguena - 2:15
Habanera - 2:51
Feria - 6:40

Pavane pour une infante defunte

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Maurice Ravel
Conducted by: Kenneth Jean
Recording date: June 1990
Produced by: Sauer, Martin

Pavane pour une infante defunte - 6:28

La Valse

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Maurice Ravel
Conducted by: Kenneth Jean
Recording date: June 1990
Produced by: Sauer, Martin

La Valse - 13:17

Daphnis et Chloe, Suite No. 2

(more info)

Performed by: Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Maurice Ravel
Conducted by: Kenneth Jean
Recording date: June 1990
Produced by: Sauer, Martin

Lever du jour - Pantomime - Danse generale - 16:27

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Composer(s):
Ravel, Maurice

Conductor(s):
Jean, Kenneth

Orchestra(s):
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra

Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 730099542425
Item Number: 8550424
Release Date: May 14, 1991