Ravel-Sorabji "Spanish Rhapsody"

[orangesodaking]

Anyone else heard this piano transcription of Ravel's Spanish Rhapsody? I have yet to hear the whole thing, but here's an exceprt of Michael Habermann playing part of the Féria. It sounds VERY involved, but also sounds really cool! It's not the usual supercluster of musical ideas you would usually associate with some of Sorabji's music.

https://www.michaelhabermann.com/
1. Click on "Sound Files"
2. Scroll down a little bit to "Other Sound Files" and click on the excerpt of Ravel's Spanish Rhapsody.

[retrouvailles]

I have had this recording for a long time, and for as long as I have had it, I have wanted a pianist of, say, Jonathan Powell's caliber to tackle this piece. Michael Habermann's recording leaves a lot to be desired in terms of technical accuracy and overall confidence in his playing. It is by no means a small feat to play this piece, so I can't be too hard on Habermann, but we need another Sorabjian giant to tackle this piece.

[lostinidlewonder]

I personally think that Habermann cracks it really well and plays it very musically. I tried to play this a number of years ago and ran away tail in between my legs. It is a wonderful piece from Sorabji, similar but unlike most of his other works.

[ahinton]

What is being discussed here is the second of Sorabji's piano transcriptions of Ravel's Rapsodie Espagnole. As with Chopin's "Minute" Waltz Op. 64 No. 1, Sorabji transcribed the piece twice. The one that Michael Habermann recorded and the one that is more often played is the latter one dating from 1945. The earlier one was unknown for many years; dating from 1923, it was written for and either given or sent (I suspect the latter) to Ravel himself and its manuscript remained in the Ravel family archive until it was sold along with other items a few years ago, so Sorabji never saw it again. We don't know what prompted him to revisit this 22 years later. Each version has now been edited and typeset; the ms. versions and the typeset ones are all available from The Sorabji Archive (see www.sorabji-archive.co.uk).

During WWI, Sorabji had apparently contemplated writing a book on Ravel but he didn't in the end get around to doing so; his love of the best of the French composer's music nevertheless remained with him for his entire lifetime.

I have to admit that neither of these two Ravel transpcriptions reveals Sorabji in his best light; there are ample moments of great finesse and fine "translation" but these tend on occasion to rub shoulders with a quite unusual (for him) clumsiness that almost seems to suggest (to me, at any rate) that the motivation to recast this gorgeous work in pianistic terms exceeded the ability to do it really well. Set either version by the side of his brilliant transcription of the closing scene from Strauss's Salome (arguably the best of all his transcriptions) and the differences will beome immediately apparent; that work has yet to be recorded, but it has been edited, typeset and performed - by the same Jonathan Powell as retrouvailles would like to hear playing the Ravel!

Best,

Alistair

[orangesodaking]

I bought this recording, have listened to it a few times (as well as Ravel's original orchestrated version) and I agree, it does leave a little to be technically desired, but I still enjoy listening to it greatly! I'm also putting Ravel's on my iPod, as well as La Valse (both piano and orchestra). Such great music!

[argerichfan]

Set either version by the side of his brilliant transcription of the closing scene from Strauss's Salome (arguably the best of all his transcriptions) and the differences will become immediately apparent; that work has yet to be recorded, but it has been edited, typeset and performed - by the same Jonathan Powell as retrouvailles would like to hear playing the Ravel!

And arguably the transcription I would most like to hear. 

Just curious, what did Sorabji think about Elgar? 

[retrouvailles]

I have sightread (haha, and failed miserably) the Salome transcription, and from what I could get from it, it is quite a work that I would love to hear played by capable hands.

[ahinton]

And arguably the transcription I would most like to hear. 

Just curious, what did Sorabji think about Elgar? 

He didn't speak of him very much but there is evidence at various points in his two books and the Collected Published Writings that he considered him to be a composer of considerable significance who nevertheless all too often wrote well below his best. The works that he most admired were - perhaps unsurprisingly - the concertos, Gerontius, the first two symphonies, Alassio and Falstaff. What is perhaps the most interesting is that, in the latter 1920s, he attached his name to a spirited public defence of Elgar against a largely disparaging article on him by Busoni scholar Edward Dent.

Best,

Alistair