Ravel: Orchestral Works, Vol. 5

Featuring

Leonard Slatkin
André Dussollier
Isabelle Druet
Orchestre National de Lyon
Maurice Ravel

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Compositional Technique

Ravel's incidental music for Antar includes his own instrumental links and interventions, such as a flute/clarinet fugato and an elegant waltz, alongside his orchestrations of Rimsky-Korsakov's work.

Recording & Production

The new text for this recording of Antar was written by French-Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf, who based it on the emotions suggested by Rimsky-Korsakov's music and advice from conductor Leonard Slatkin.

Composer Biography

Maurice Ravel, the composer, discovered Russian music and Javanese gamelan at the age of fourteen during the 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris.

Composer Biography

Ravel was part of a group of unconventional young artists in early twentieth-century Paris called 'Les Apaches' (The Ruffians), where he met Tristan Klingsor, whose poetry inspired his 1903 Shéhérazade song cycle.

Compositional Technique

Ravel's orchestral choices, like divided strings and a large wind section, reflect Debussy's influence, but Ravel focused on individual timbres for transparency, unlike Debussy's blending.

Composition History

Ravel's 'fairy overture' Shéhérazade, intended for an opera based on the Arabian Nights, never saw the light of day as a complete opera.

Composition History

Ravel's incidental music for Antar, based on Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic suite, was created for a new play by Lebanese writer Chekri Ganem, who was living in exile in Paris.