Gaspard de la nuit. Le Gibet or Scarbo??

[david456103]

I want to start another movement of Gaspard de la nuit. I've been working on the ondine for around 10 months.
Which is better to do first, Le Gibet or Scarbo? I like Scarbo better, but it sounds(and looks) fiendishly difficult(not sure how difficult it is compared to Ondine, which i found difficult but manageable). Le Gibet SEEMS easier, but there may be a lot of subtle and hidden difficulties(not necessarily technical) in it.
Share your thoughts! 

[classicalnhiphop]

If you though ondine to be manageable, I could easily see you doing scarbo.  However, it is very difficult.  With the le gibet, it's hard to get the perfect sound that you want from the piece.  Musically, le gibet is the hardest of the 3 movements. 

[thorn]

Although they are in the same suite, I think the movements are so different that it's quite difficult to rate them in difficulty order. I know that in the UK, Ondine appears on a lower diploma syllabus than the other two movements but I genuinely don't understand that assessment.

I personally think that they are all difficult to pull of musically, and that if you don't have the skills to pull of Le Gibet, then you're a bit out of your depth in the other two where there are more technical difficulties. For that reason, I'd advise Le Gibet.

As a side note on the topic of Gaspard, I strongly advise familiarising yourself with his ballet Daphnis and Chloe which Ravel was working on at the same time. Gaspard needs that exact same subtlety of sound, only with a single piano rather than however many instruments (and voices) Daphnis requires. You should also listen to Marius Constant's orchestration of Gaspard which will give you plenty of food for thought!

[fnork]

if your plan is to perform the whole thing at some point, I'd say - the sooner you start work on Scarbo, the better. You won't regret it. First time I looked at that piece must've been 5-6 years ago - I come back to it from time to time (this year, I'm performing all of Gaspard at least 20 times or so in concert) but some of the difficulties are still overwhelming each time I pick it up after a break. Le Gibet was the last piece I learned of the three.