Ravel's music

[chopin2015]

Is anybody else absolutely stunned by the difficulty of most of his music? Lets talk about your experience with his music, and how you feel about his music and your experience.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I only know little blips of Gaspard de la Nuit.

Other than that, I have played anything else by him.

[unholeee]

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playing a couple of the simpler ones (not very well but i think it still qualifies as playing) i noticed, have improved, tremendously, the crossing of the hands such that the c# minor rach prelude seems so much easier to navigate.

..i wish i started when i was 3.

i dont know what it is about his music, mostly i prefer more sombre pieces, k310, rach op 32 no 10, chopin op 69 no 2, piano sonata 2 etc etc, but not with ravel.

[chopin2015]

his arpeggios make my life difficult.

[vsrinivasa]

I really like Ravel's work personally. My favourite piece of his is Ondine, but I probably won't get anywhere near that level for another few years. Although it's on the LTCL syllabus, which I find surprising, as I always found it much harder the few times I played it. As stated in a previous post, Ravel's arpeggios are really quite difficult, but they're rather pianistic usually, so I like playing them.

[cmg]

Is anybody else absolutely stunned by the difficulty of most of his music? Lets talk about your experience with his music, and how you feel about his music and your experience.

Yes, I find his stuff so hard to absorb into my mechanism.  I don't know why, because it's so beautifully written for the instrument.  Maybe it's the delicacy of so much of it, even the virtuoso sections are somehow delicate.  I feel incredibly exposed (as in Mozart) and you just know, such as with "Ondine," if you get off 1/16th of an inch in those damned arpeggios, you'll turn beauty into hilarity.  Well . . .not for me, but for the audience.  Almost every time I've played Ravel, I've made sure I had a bag around to put over my head in case I flamed out in some beautiful section and had to hide.  The utter shame Ravel can induce in me!

[perprocrastinate]

The only thing I really want to learn from Ravel is his Concerto for the Left Hand.

Too bad I need an orchestra for the full effect.

[celegorma]

Ravel is a combination of Liszt and Mozart. While his pieces are difficult technically, I don't find his music too hard musically to play compared to Brahms, Beethoven or Chopin. There isn't really much to "interpret", just have to play it nice and cute with good sensitive touch and dynamics and you are set.

[chopin2015]

Well I find Chopin more enjoyable. PS yesterday I was at the church playing Chopin winter wind etude and ballade no 2 and I got good comments but I think the pastor is scared of the fast stuff. She only enjoys nocturnes and valses, she just doesn't understand the melancholy that I feel. LOL
 MUsically, I agree that Ravel just dreamy alien/mermaid movie music, but technically-I find it unnerving. I am not having fun with it. It is hard work compared to other large works I am able practice. meh.

[vsrinivasa]

Well I find Chopin more enjoyable. PS yesterday I was at the church playing Chopin winter wind etude and ballade no 2 and I got good comments but I think the pastor is scared of the fast stuff. She only enjoys nocturnes and valses, she just doesn't understand the melancholy that I feel. LOL
 MUsically, I agree that Ravel just dreamy alien/mermaid movie music, but technically-I find it unnerving. I am not having fun with it. It is hard work compared to other large works I am able practice. meh.

I understand your feeling with the pastor. I had a friend who only liked fast, impressive stuff, and would not listen to slow, expressive things because they were "too easy". She didn't even like Une Barque Sur L'Ocean, because it was "too quiet and not showy enough."

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I don't like listening to Ravel or Debussy unless its live. 

After about two listens to a piece I get a headache.  It's like really ear piercing.

[nanabush]

Ya, good god his music is difficult.

I've played his Sonatine and Alborada del Gracioso.  So many delicate passages that require a huge demand technically.

The 3rd movement of the Sonatine (even though it's not considered as his more difficult output) has many awkward passages.

The Alborada was much, much worse...I played it for my 3rd year recital, and those damn repeated notes took months to clear up.  Don't mind the thirds, it's more of a flashy trick that doesn't take too much work (putting hands together is a little tricky), but getting a CONSISTENT fingering when the melodies intertwine with the repeated notes.

I had to play it at a masterclass too (Andre Laplante), and I had heard his recording which was MUCH faster than I play it. 

Ridiculous piece, BUT ridiculously fun to learn!  There are no dull moments in any of Ravel's music.  Him and Debussy both... I enjoyed learning every damn passage of the Alborada and the Sonatine (and the load of Debussy pieces  I've worked on over the past few years).

[redrobin62]

Yes, I know Le Tombeau de Couperin is overplayed; still, I enjoy it immensely. Also, I can listen to Valses Nobles et sentimentales and Miroirs all night.

[patrickd]

I am in the middle of learning the final movement of the Sonatine and find the difficulty quite manageable.

[mahlermaniac]

I would love to learn to play Ravel's music. I'm years away from even considering it however 

[andreslr6]

I already hated glissandos before playing Alborada, so when I got to those double glissandos I got really angry at ravel  I hated them so much, but in the end I could solve them and play the piece complete. Also, those repeated notes where a pain as well, specially at a faster tempo, not because of the fingering or the discomfort, but because they need to be piano 

[chopin2015]

I am in the middle of learning the final movement of the Sonatine and find the difficulty quite manageable.

There areу not too many cross rhythms in that work though, is  how I feel.

[vsrinivasa]

I already hated glissandos before playing Alborada, so when I got to those double glissandos I got really angry at ravel  I hated them so much, but in the end I could solve them and play the piece complete. Also, those repeated notes where a pain as well, specially at a faster tempo, not because of the fingering or the discomfort, but because they need to be piano 

Those repeated notes are malicious! They are really irritating. The glissandos are more painful than challenging. I played this piece rather early because I wanted a challenge. Then I went back to play Noctuelles, which is really fun and beautiful.

[teosoleil]

IMO, Ravel sounds best if it sounds effortless and fluid. I've heard a little Ravel which sounds forced and rigid, and needless to say....ew.

(Of course, I'm talking a lot about myself with that statement, haha. But my Ravel playing is limited--have only done Sonatine. Though I've listened to a large amount of his work).

Martha Argerich is pretty much the leading queen of smooth and flowing Ravel. Just listen to Jeux d'Eau, her tempo captures a fountain pretty miraculously, without sounding like a slow, oozy (and gross!) Romantic work, or a forced speed-through, for that matter.

[redrobin62]

I have the complete piano works by Jean-Yves Thibaudet. I must admit, his performances and the music itself transports me to Paris.

[p2u_]

Michelangeli - Ravel Piano Concerto - [2] Adagio assai

How divine! Unfortunately, the audience is really sick...

Paul

[camille101]

While he IS one of the easiest composers to have a convenient memory lapse or finger slip at a climatic moment since Mozart, when played well, I seriously consider putting him above Chopin on my list (though it really depends on my mood)...A few favourite interpreters:

Yvonne Lefebure

Cortot (the best sonatine I've heard)

'Samson de la nuit' brings a lovely angle to Scarbo

I don't really 'get' how the Russians play Ravel, but others have preferred Richter and Pogolerich.

And seeing as we're talking about ADG...

[the89thkey]

I haven't played too much Ravel...just the concerto and a few solo works. I think they are definitely not as hard as, say, Rachmaninov.