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THE MUSIC OF FALLA AND RAVEL
(continued)
The second half of this concert's program is a tour de force of works by Maurice Ravel, with a particular twist. Daniel Barenboim has long believed that when grouped as they are here ("Rapsodie espagnole"; "Pavane pour une infante défunte"; "Alborada del gracioso"; "Boléro"), these four separate works form a sort of Spanish symphony in four movements. Barenboim invites us to listen to this admittedly artificial but engaging construct and come to our own conclusions. Although the works were not intended for performance together or in any set order, Barenboim's idea is persuasive and makes for a vivid second half of the program.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was born in the French Pyrenees to a Swiss father and a Basque mother who spent much of her youth in Madrid. Although he grew up in Paris, he moved in the artistic milieu of the French capital at a time when Spanish art and music were in vogue. Ravel was one of the greatest of all orchestrators, deriving a remarkable range of color and character from the instruments he selected for his compositions. In these four Spanish works, in addition to strings, winds, and brass, there is a much larger percussion section that merits special attention. There are castanets, of course, but also timpani, bass drum, side drum cymbals, triangle, tambourine, tam-tam, crotales, celesta, and xylophone.
"Rapsodie espagnole" was written in 1908, at the same time Ravel was at work on his opera "L'heure espagnole." His dazzling use of instruments in the rhapsody was, in part, an exercise for how he would use them in the opera. The results are brilliant and the flavor is unmistakably Spanish. It makes the ideal opening movement for the Barenboim-conceived Ravel Spanish Symphony, and should be thought of as evening music.
In many symphonies, the second movement is the slow one, so "Pavane pour une infante défunte" ("Pavane for a Dead Princess," 1910) is quite suitable. A pavane is a processional dance that originated in Padua, Italy, but in Spain it is used as church music, as a farewell to the dead. Ravel did not have a specific princess in mind when he wrote this music (originally for piano, and majestically orchestrated) but thought the title was alluring. The music has the hushed feeling of night.
"Alborada del gracioso" was composed for piano in 1905 and orchestrated in 1918. This rollicking work makes a perfect third movement for a Spanish Symphony. An alborada has a specific connotation in Spanish music. It is a song sung as dawn approaches that warns lovers to cool their passions before they are caught.
In the journey from evening through night and the first light of dawn, Ravel's universally known "Boléro" (1928) becomes the essential last movement of this Spanish Symphony because it sounds like the slow, inexorable rise of a hot red Spanish sun. For Ravel, this work was not so much pictorial as an exercise in dynamics, pacing, and orchestration. He used it for his own interest (and initially it was a ballet score), but he had no clue that it would become one of the most famous pieces in the entire classical music canon. In the context of a Spanish Symphony, "Boléro" actually achieves more meaning than it does when played on its own.
Top banner photos: Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Daniel Barenboim. |
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Violinists of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. |
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Daniel Barenboim, the music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. |
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