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Ravel - Le Langage des Fleurs: Piano Music

£12.69

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Label: Guild

Cat No: GMCD7825

Barcode: 5065002170255

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Instrumental

Release Date: 10th July 2020

Works

Ravel, Maurice

A la maniere de Borodine
A la maniere de Chabrier
Le Tombeau de Couperin
Menuet sur le nom de Haydn
Pavane pour une infante defunte (piano)
Prelude in A minor
Sonatine
Valses nobles et sentimentales

Artists

Ann Martin-Davis (piano)

Works

Ravel, Maurice

A la maniere de Borodine
A la maniere de Chabrier
Le Tombeau de Couperin
Menuet sur le nom de Haydn
Pavane pour une infante defunte (piano)
Prelude in A minor
Sonatine
Valses nobles et sentimentales

Artists

Ann Martin-Davis (piano)

About

This is no ordinary album of Ravel’s piano music; this music has been a lifelong passion of pianist Ann Martin-Davis and after selecting the works for her first a bum of Ravel’s solo piano music, commissioned by Guild, she read Professor Michael J. Puri’s book, Ravel the Decadent, which breaks new ground by understanding Ravel’s compositions to be part of the late nineteenth century cultural and artistic phenomenon of Decadence, rather than the usual Neo-Classical or Symbolist labels applied to his music. Ann realised that her selection complimented Prof. Puri’s arguments and invited him to write the notes for the album. The result is fascinating.

Ann Martin-Davis’s love of twentieth century and contemporary art crosses all genres and this has led to a career finding new and appealing ways of presenting solo piano and chamber music, as well as that of a renowned teacher.

‘Maurice Ravel has been an enduring part of my music-making; as a little girl I played the “Mouvement de menuet” from Ravel’s Sonatine in a piano competition, which the renowned pianist Phyllis Sellick was adjudicating.

‘Six months later, I was her newest (and smallest) recruit and she explained to me how she had played the very same piece, also aged eleven, to the composer himself.

‘“What was he like?” I asked excitedly.

‘“He was all pointy – pointy hair, pointy nose, pointy clothes,” she replied.

‘“And what did he say?”

‘“He said ‘Pas mal!’”

‘Perhaps not the most fulsome praise, but Phyllis’ childhood snapshot is actually quite revealing. From an early age, Ravel was meticulous about his dress and known for his reserved social manner. Biographical accounts describe Ravel as a dandy; Colette, librettist of his opera L’enfant et les sortilèges thought the young composer was “perhaps secretly shy” and she noted the contrast of his aloof social style with the flamboyance of his outré fashions, which included “loud ties and frilly shirts”...

‘I am delighted that Michael Puri, Associate Professor, University of Virginia, has written our sleeve note; as ever with his work, it is a great read and it explains so much about the intimacy, colour and sensuality of Ravel’s music…’

– Ann Martin-Davis

‘A distinguished scholar and pianist’ – Gramophone