This album is a 'Ravelian anthology' that includes Bertrand Chamayou's own transcriptions and a series of homages to Ravel by other composers, written between Ravel's time and the present.
Compositional Technique
Ravel's solo piano transcription of La Valse is considered a 'conundrum' because it provides a skeleton structure with two staves, but lacks many details, which Ravel added on a third stave without playable combinations.
Album & Artwork
This album, assembled as a 'portrait of Ravel without any truly original work by him featured,' is Bertrand Chamayou's personal contribution to the 150th anniversary celebrations of the composer.
Interpretation
Bertrand Chamayou's approach to Ravel's La Valse transcription involves 'figuring out' how to incorporate the supplementary notes, as Ravel seemed to leave it to the pianist to interpret.
Interpretation
Bertrand Chamayou also initially left out Ravel's own piano transcriptions of three fragments from Daphnis et Chloé and La Valse.
Interpretation
Pianist Bertrand Chamayou recorded almost all of Maurice Ravel's solo piano works ten years ago, but omitted some minor youthful pieces and student exercises.
Album & Artwork
The album features pieces by various composers that evoke Ravel, such as Joaquín Nin's Mensaje with its Hispanic accents, and Salvatore Sciarrino's De la nuit, which collages fragments from Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit.
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