Ravel: Symphonic Works

Featuring

Günther Herbig
Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester
Maurice Ravel

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Interpretation

For this recording, conductor Günther Herbig arranged the musicians in front of a side aisle, rather than the usual position with their backs to the altar, to better utilize the instrumentation and allow the opulent scoring of works like La Valse "room to breathe."

Performer Biography

Günther Herbig, the conductor on this album, was Principal Conductor of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra (BSO) from 1977, having previously served as deputy conductor from 1966 to 1972.

Compositional Technique

Ravel's Boléro, commissioned by dancer Ida Rubinstein, repeats a single melody many times over a constant rhythm, with the intensity built solely through instrumentation rather than thematic development.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Ravel's La Valse, commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes, was envisioned by the composer as a choreographic tone poem, an "apotheosis of dance."

Historical Context

The Berlin Symphony Orchestra (BSO) recorded French repertoire for the first time with this album, despite having performed it in concerts, due to a general shortage of hard currency restricting access to Western music scores.

Recording & Production

The recordings were made in the Christuskirche in Oberschöneweide, a church dedicated in 1908 with excellent acoustics, where the reverberation time was reduced by hanging shrouds over the galleries.