Maurice Ravel's Stunning Piano Writing
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ม.ค. 2023
- Ravel’s Gaspard de La Nuit was written in 1908. It’s three movements contain some of the most intricate, poetic and technically difficult piano music ever written. They were inspired by the fantastical poems of Aloysius Bertrand. The first movement, Ondine, is about a seductive underwater nymph, and Ravel’s music is unprecedentedly rich and virtuosic in presenting an array of shimmering watery textures of various sorts. The music in this extract comes from the climax of the movement, in which giant tertiary steps of harmony are presented in complex cascades of notes in both hands. On the page it looks almost unplayable, but the passage is worked out with extraordinary precision so that the patterns lie under the fingers with the thumbs playing a crucial melodic role.
MUSICAL EXCERPTS USED IN THIS VIDEO
Maurice Ravel: Ondine from Gaspard de la Nuit (1908)
Louis Lortie, piano solo.
John Coltrane: Giant Steps (1959)
#Ravel #gaspard #musicprofessor
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Edited by Ian Coulter ( www.iancoultermusic.com )
Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew King
"No piano in the world is good enough for Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit". -Quote ascribed to Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.
Nice quote of one of the greatest pianists ever. (Concerning one of the greatest composer ever I think)
A long time ago he participated at the famous belgian piano concour and he had the choice between an Steinway D and a belgian concert grand (Hautrive Brussels 1935) He prefered this unknown brand and as a piano restorer I had to prepare this old timer for a Ravel recording in the museum for music instruments last year. Very nice and mysterious « Ravelian » sound.
@@pierregevaert7453 That is a very interesting story. Michelangeli was famous for his perfectionism not only in terms of the almost impossibly high standards he aimed for in his playing, but also with regard to the condition of his pianos. He often travelled with two Steinways and sometimes due to circumstances such as temperature and humidity, neither of them met with his approval despite the efforts of the piano tuners, as recounted by Celibidache in an interview which is available here on TH-cam.
He was incredibly sensitive to sound and could hear the slightest deviation in the sound of a piano hammer striking the string which not even his piano tuner picked up. There are several anecdotes about his sensitivity to sound in documentaries about him, and he clearly was a connoiseur of the piano. So based on that and on your description of the Hautrive Bruxelles concert grand, I can believe that he found this piano intriguing and suitable for his purposes
Interesting! Thanks
Why is no piano adequate :(
OKAY, RAVEL IS ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC, BUT LETS GIVE SOME PRAISE TO HOW PERFECT THIS SHORT ANALYSIS IS. No, like seriously, this is the perfect video when I want to show my English or biology or whatever teacher something at the end of class. The highlighting of the melody amongst all of the sparkles and the analysis of the chord progressions all chopped down to a 3 minute video? LOVE IT MY GUY
Thank you so much. Nice comments like this make it all worth while!
I agree. This is NOT one of your run'-of-the mill analysis of a musical segment by a great and humble composer. This is an Inspired harmonic dissection that's also entertaining. Good job.
AGREE!
I had no idea Coltrane borrowed from this!
Your caps lock is on- oh, wait no you got it. Wait now it’s back on again
That Giant Steps sound, decades before Coltrane, is pretty damn amazing to hear. Thank you for this great video!
RIP Burt Bacharach, student of Darius Milhaud and another great admirer of Ravel.
Herbie hancock and others have been vocal that they've taken some inspiration from Ravel.
no wonder I feel jazzy sometimes when I listen to this awesome piece
It's harder to hear when the piano is playing those huge arpeggios!
Ravel praised jazz as an underappreciated American artform.
@@OneirovoreAnother proof of it was how he refused to give lessons to George Gershwin because he feared he'd influence George's 'jazzy' composition style.
Ravel is my favorite composer, I admire how he write for orchestral, also for piano
He is such an artisan when we talk about his orchestral works and orchestrations.
@@jacobtapianieto9655 totalmente cierto
@@jacobtapianieto9655 And you know what's funny?It sounds so lush, yet his orchestration is pure efficiency. Only well-connecting resonances are used. It is not minimalism, but it certainly is not over-the-top whipped cream, like many German composers.
What if he didn't write orchestra, then you wouldn't like him as much? He would be inferior?. And, is that your opinion,.or someone you've been told? People into classical music are so conforming, it's like people don't think for themselves.
@@alvodin6197 Literally nobody said this about Ravel in this series of comments. You interpret other people’s words at will and while you’re at it, identify people who love classical music as asses who think as a group. Maybe you should just come off your high horse.
Well, the cadenza in the first movement of Prok 2 will forever be a classic.
I played gaspard years ago in music school, and it is the greatest piece written for solo piano...the structure is such an achievement and is so much fun to play. I got a real high by the end. but i agree the cadenza in the first movement of the Prokofiev 2nd is astounding.,..unplayable, it is my fav concerto but is i never played...Why is that.? too difficult? people hate it? it is so much better than prokofiev 3rd....
@@hugginduff prokofiev’s 3rd piano concerto is much more well written than the 2nd.
@@hugginduff if you could play Gaspard, arguably the hardest, then you should be able to?
Ravel is one of a kind..and to me the greatest Composer that ever lived..no one approaches his sense of musical beauty and sophistication,and orchestra arrangement.
Many will agree with you on that praise for his unbelievable capacity of "orchestral arrangement", although some other giants could be mixed in the discussion (Bach, Berlioz, Mahler, Stravinsky, Shostakovitch, Sibelius, Britten, etc.) but you lost me completely in the "greatest Composer that ever lived..no one approaches his sense of musical beauty and sophistication"... Everything on that last statement is almost impossible to define and utterly subjective.
Wonderfully educating and highly entertaining clip. I have become addicted to Ravels music, but I am at least equally addicted to his fellow countryman Debussy who wrote some thrilling piano climaxes as well. Hommage à Rameau played by Michelangeli in 1962 never disappoints. La Cathédrale Engloutie played by Richter is simply majestic. Speaking of Richter and Ravel, Richters reading of Ravels Miroirs (in Prague 1965) is nothing short of miraculous.
Superb choices. We will look at Debussy soon...
Ravel, Debussy, Chaminade, Poulenc, etc… There really isn’t in history a period of time quite like this, where a complete musical identity was summarized so utterly completely in every possible way, by citizens of really only one small country.
This piece is really satisfying to play and I implore any pianist to give it a go, even just parts of it that you can manage, it's such a fascinating and beautiful thing in so many ways and will push your technique to the max.
One of my favorite moments comes during the secondary theme. The shimmering repeated triads in the right hand begin to sparkle due to octave displacement, the left hand begins the melody: then the right hand takes over the melody while still playing those sparkles (!) so that the left hand can add a sumptuous arpeggio in the bass. It sounds like three hands playing. It was so much fun to play--and again, it fit the hand perfectly.
Totally agree. I’m a amateur and enjoy playing the beginning
I got all the way up to the climax with it's insane splits and stopped there, it's been 15 years I think I'm gonna have another go, wish me luck!
I learned this as a student and would say that it took about 6 months for it to feel comfortable under the hands. There are challenges in pretty much every bar. All the repeated notes and the hands getting in the way of each other. The extreme dynamics. But - when it all comes together - Ondine is one of the best things you can play. Put it this way - you want to get better so you can play it.
Well done, learning Ondine.
Among the greatest climaxs in piano music has to be the end of the massive cadenza in the 1st mvt of Prokofiev’s 2nd piano concerto.
100%
Ravel often gets lauded for his orchestral craftsmanship. But his piano writing is just as incredible!
I think both are equally incredible.
Fun fact: many of his works were piano compositions first. When orchestrating, he found ideas in the colors of the harmonics and overtones of the piano.
Really appreciate the simplified score!
Thank you so much for this video. I’ve been playing this piece for a few months now and this section never gets old
I only knew the Bolero from Ravel. Now I need to explore this composer because I never heard music like that.
You're slowly introducing me to Ravel's works and orchestration and I'm loving it! I have a lot to learn from him!
This is an awesome video! The first time I heard this piece (especially the climax) it really changed my view on music! The harmonies were something I had never really heard before, and the crystal clear rain drop-like textures that ornament the piece are just gorgeous, and remind me of a starry night sky. Thanks for making this video! It has made it clear for me why this piece is so wonderful.
This sent chills up my spine more than once! Thank you for this in depth look at Ravel's master work.
I wrote a piece for solo piano that quotes a bunch of Ravel’s piano music to learn better how to write for a piano. Really helpful exercise for both technique and creativity.
'Helpful' - understatement of the year!
@@themusicprofessor it’s also turned out to be one of my more popular works. Here’s a link if you’d like to have a listen.
th-cam.com/video/xvMBVkBGHVQ/w-d-xo.html
I can't tell how I truly appreciate this video.
Thank you! Brilliant and enlightening.
Fabulous teasing out & highlighting of the salient parts.
And lots of sparkles!
I didn't know Lortie had recorded this. (I wondered right away who this pianist was). Ethereal, haunting. This piece, when played to its fullest expressive haunting potential, should last maybe about 40 minutes. Not 22 minutes. It's unimaginably heart breaking with the most glorious pastiches of glistening harmonies and color. It does take a finely tuned concert piano to set the player free
One of my most favorite musical moments ever. Rare time I actually forget I'm listening to someone playing a piano, it's just pure emotional release.
This is really special musical analysis. Especially the stripped down parts that sound pretty “enormous” in and of themselves? What a composition, and what a mind to conceive of such subtle beauty and bold emotion. Incredible.
Ravel is beyond a piano master and a superb orchestrator, he's one of few people I'd consider music gods. Man I'll never get enough of his music! And thank you for all the straight-to-the-ponit videos, very much appreciated.
Thank you for your analysis which makes me get more understanding of the inner beauty of the masterpiece 😊 Hope you can make more wonderful videos of such kind ❤
❤ when giant steps started i was WOW. Ravel is the BEST
This is arguably the greatest piece ever written by a composer!!! Just amazing on so many different levels!
My professor specialized in Ravel during his career. I still can't fathom doing such thing
Utterly intoxicating sensuality built by diamond-like brilliant intellect
What an incredible build up!!! This is the first I listen to it. Thanks 🤓
During my graduate studies as a music theorist, Ravel and Stravinsky were my favorite composers. Their music not only had interesting abstract sequences, but they craftily evaded that sequential nature in their sound, which is difficult to achieve as a composer.
Thank you for this
Wow! I love how you have presented this… your analysis follows a climactic arc of its own. Thank you for opening this door to Ravel’s sublime genius.
Thank you!
Thank you for this, and for using Louis Lortie’s beautiful interpretation. He is my favorite for all Ravel and Chopin … and more. Applause for your video!
Oh my, how I have practiced this passage a million times and never really mastered it like this. Beautifully played by whoever is playing! There is also another passage a bit earlier in the piece that is actually surprisingly difficult even though it sounds like it should be relatively easy. But it wouldn't get to be a good video I suppose because this here is the absolute climax of the piece. Nice vid, thank you.
I appreciate you letting the music speak for itself with only some text to guide. Most people on yt have a tendency to give their spoken commentary inbetween clips but to be honest man I just want to listen to Ravel :)
I think this is the pinnacle of climaxes - unmatched in my opinion...
I tend to agree with you.
I recognized that Giant Steps chord progression immediately. Delightful
I heard "Giant Steps" even before you said it! Coltrane knew who to listen to. He also got his "Love Supreme" motif from the great Aaron Copland. Maurice Ravel was truly a genius!!! Decades ahead of his time.❤❤❤❤❤
Thank you very much.
*Marvelous!*
I am absolutely elated to see you cover my favorite part of Gaspard, it truly is an incredible progression and really shows how incredible of a composer Ravel truly is. Thank you IMMENSELY for this concise yet detailed analysis!
Thank you so much. Always exciting to hear how much people love this piece
This is great, I love Ravel's piano music, and it's nice to see someone with a jazz theory perspective looking at the harmony in this way.
Thank you - actually I can't pretend to be a Jazz theoretician at all, but I am a big fan of cross-disciplinary perspectives. Far too many things (in music and elsewhere) are weirdly - and unhelpfully -compartmentalised!
@@themusicprofessor I agree :)
How genius is he...I can't say no more
The incredible climax of the Piano Sonata no.4 by Scriabin
Did you mean 4 or 5?
The fast "Coltrane" bit also brings to mind "Vertigo's" love theme.
Damn! What a gem analisis. Love it.
TH-cam randomly put this on my recommended, I'm assuming because I've lurked on Ravel videos for years as he's been my favorite composer for ages, so I'm very happy to see this. Always love finding people who also cherish his incredible talent. He moves me like no other composer can.
He's pretty special!
I am so glad this came up in my feed (and I just subbed to the channel) as I am more than a little obsessed with Gaspard. I have been collecting various recordings of it bit by bit; my first taste of it was from a wonderful vintage LP of the piece played by Argerich (I think her start of Ondine brings to mind the foam created by waves lapping the shoreline). I randomly picked it out from a shop in NYC years back. Since then I have other versions such including Michelangeli, Nojima. I managed to get the record of Gina Bachauer playing it coupled with Sir Laurence Olivier reading of the poem in translation, which shed a great deal of light on Bertrand's work. I plan to listen to many more renditions of this fascinating masterpiece. Cheers!
Thank you so much! That sounds a fascinating journey into the music (and poems) via those recordings. I too first heard this music played by the wonderful Marta Argerich. Her performance is utterly sublime!
would love to see a video on turangulila mvt 6! i have loved that movement for so long based on how the orchestra interacts with the solo piano. great video!
Ah yes - 'Jardin du Sommei d'Amour'! I too have loved that movement for years. It has a very special magic about it. I will try to do a video at some point...
Great analysis.
please keep creating this Impressionist related content Professor!
What a massive rise for this channel, when I first saw it, it was at 300-499 and later 500 after my subscription. Now, it's at an impressive 3k!
Charlie knew. You know. I know. Maurice Ravel. It is under the hands. I wish you had my picture so I, as well, could pop into the frame in tempo, admiring Ravels take on triangles and protractors. Outstanding content. Subscribed.
Some of the best 3 min of my life
Superb. Thank you.
That was a very intriguing analysis.
Thank you
fantastic video, I love how you just let us listen and give us all the info on the text :)
I started learning this section a few days ago, there's a video of me practising it on my channel, incredible harmonies and textures, and such beautiful music.
One of my favorite composers! Thanks for your videos, I love them
(Btw incredible how many times i’ve listened to this piece and never noticed the Coltrane pattern lmao)
We only noticed a resemblance when we created the simplified score!
@@themusicprofessorColtrane was a huge fan of Ravel. “Impressions” is called “Impressions” because it uses part of a Ravel melody
The fist price reminded me of the Disney song that says when you wish upon a star
Bravo!
Really cool piano climax is also in piano etude from A. Scriabin d sharp minor. Ashtonishing chords and sound. I remember playing this piece for a recording in our Slovak radio. Beautiful memories.
Yep Gaspard Ravel’s are one of my favs, epic mention for me also is Chopin ballade 1 and 4
God, this is amazingly well done! Congrats on the video!
Thanks so much for your support!
Ravel's Left Hand Piano Concert brought me here!! This is mindblowing!!!
The Left Hand Concerto is a piece we want to look at in future.
@@themusicprofessor the melodies and motifs in that piece is nothing short of NOSTALGIA!!
The build up and release in "La Valse" is also mind-blowing
Just wait for our next video...
i think i might cry
Thanks🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤
The climax of Franck's Prelude Chorale and Fugue is just as monumental as this.
Very cool!
The climax at the end of Scriabin's 5th piano sonata.
Wow the ending parts... I heard Harpsicord playing... beautiful flowing crystal sound...
Marvelous
Thank you!
love this!
Thank you.
Stunning
Thank you!
Yeah, first time I heard this piece I heard giant steps. Super cool
i was painstakingly boiling this piece down into changes when suddenly someone did it for me ‼
Thanks for this analysis. I always wonder what is going on with ravel's harmony
my favourite piano climax is definitely scriabin sonata no. 9. very well planned. i cannot even describe what is happening
Dang, I can't even conceptualize music like that -- to be able to make it actually playable is really amazing.
In his legendary 1960 Prague performance, Michelangeli plays the build up and the following climax in Ondine like no other pianist I have heard, especially in the "Un peu plus lent" part. Here he achieves what I can only describe as a maelstrom effect that is nothing short of supernatural (the "Crikey!" is indeed justified here!), before things start to calm down. Watching this video made me appreciate Michelangeli's Gaspard even more than I already did.
Michelangeli was an extraordinary pianist.
@@themusicprofessor This is true.
I don't know whether you have heard Ashkenazy's version, but it is dreadful. Yet he won all sorts of prizes for it and acclaim from his acolytes. I agree when I heard Michalangeli's version I was gobsmacked. Funny how some people can really make the piece make sense. I would also recommended listening to Ravel's own remastered recordings. A
Camadessus, a student of Ravel is another good one. Ravel himself was rarely impressed with the way pianists played his music, even during his own time (he would be horrified now). One of his complaints was unimaginative and 'uninnovative' pedalling. His hero was Mozartl, and indeed despite its complexity, what we really have here in the Ondine is a classical first movement of a Sonata in strict sonata form. This gives a lot of clues about how this should be played. He also makes a point about returning to tempo.
@@simonsmatthew This is an interesting comment, and I'm especially intrigued to see my intuition, that Gaspard de la Nuit reads like a classical sonata to me, may in fact be correct. Thanks! :)
@@talastra The exposition states the first subject in the tonic key, there is a bridge and then the second subject is in the dominant (G-sharp).The recap contains a few surprises, but I would argue this is the fundamental construct. Overall I would argue that Gaspard de la Nuit is closer to the Mozart sonatas than the Haydn ones, particularly due to the long final movement.
Merci de me faire re-découvrir (entendre) Ravel d'une nouvelle façon! de Montréal, Québec
Merci beaucoup. C'est merveilleux à entendre.
Coltrane was spot on
great music video 🎼
Wow!
That was very interesting! I will try to learn the piece!
Ravel is so cool!!!!! i want to learn this piece in the future when i become a better pianist.
A friend of mine decided to learn the piano by playing this piece very slowly. It wasn't a particularly sensible thing to do (he only managed the first couple of pages very slowly)!
I’ve known for years that I should become acquainted with the music of Maurice Ravel, but maybe for lack of trying my imagination just wasn’t sufficiently smitten for that balloon to leave the ground. That has now completely changed. Excellent short video.
Wonderful to hear that our little film enabled you to have a Damascene experience with Ravel's music. He really is amazing!
Thanks!
Thank you very much! Your generosity is greatly appreciated.
Beautiful ❤️✨
Wonderful analysis professor. This is something that I like to do myself, to take passages out of Gaspard and other Ravel in order to study them closer. I especially love your breakdown of the 'tune' from the harmony. May I recommend to fellow Ravel'ers of the Ivan Ilic perfomance extract of the cadenza from the left-hand concerto also on TH-cam. An equally stunning piece of piano writing made easy to study.
Thank you!
Bolero is still my favorite of his. I did my own version of those changes.
For me, the most thrilling piano climax will always be the coda to the first movement of the Appassionata. I prefer Richter's, but there are many great recordings!
The Appassionata is astounding.
mine has to be either rach 3 third movement, rach 2nd sumphony 3rd movemtn or the prokofiev concerto cadenza. But this is just incredible also!
Chopin Gm Ballade is great too! For me, Ondine is just so epic and other worldly! Brings Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings vibes to me!
The euphoric run in Chopin’s Scherzo no2 op31 is similarly thrilling.
Night rat, that's what it means in French. Gaspard is a long forgotten slang for rat ; French used to be extremely colourful a few decades back with many words for the same thing ; money, for example, could be pèze, flouze, oseille, mornifle, pognon, blé and others. Young people are having a hard time understanding movies from the 50's and 60's while they were incredibly hilarious, akin to The quest for the holy graal of the Monthy Pythons. Anyway, excellent video about, unfortunately, a lost world.
I find it really interestingly transformative to think of Gaspard de la Nuit simply as a sonata, with one of the most stunning middle movements ever.
Yes, It certainly has the scale and ambition of a sonata.
@@themusicprofessor I am thinking about your statement, "Ravel’s music is unprecedentedly rich and virtuosic in presenting an array of shimmering watery textures of various sorts." What I often hear in Ravel's music, besides his own genius, is improvement on other's--above all, Debussy and the Six [especially Jeu d'Eau and Miroirs]. I am the kind of artist (more often a writer) who encounters something and I either receive a separate inspiration or an, "I can do better than that." I can hardly think of a time I listen to Debussy and not think, "How did Ravel improve on this?" (or Ravel's better orchestrations of existing ones for Pictures at an Exhibition). (Ravel also laid the groundwork for Messiaen's obsession with birds *hehe*). I hear him mining out more in the Concerto in G from Gershwin (and also Prokofiev, but I don't know if there's even a line of transmission, or if it is performers making an inference). Anyway, there's always credit due to the first for inspiring the second (one shouldn't take anything away from Faulkner because Cormac McCarthy figures out how to out do him; or, in a more popular vein, how Nirvana rounded off the Melvins, or Nine Inch Nails rounded off Skinny Puppy, etc). But Ravel is such a tightly wound "Swiss clockmaker" that his intense attention to detail elevates his revisions of others to an even greater degree.
Yes, you nailed it. I had a close friend who played Gaspard when we were in music school together, and when I first saw that exact passage with the big climax (I believe it's measure 61), it became a part of my life ever since. (That's been about 60 years ago.) And now I listen to lots of comparative performances of Gaspart, particularly that first movement, just to see how well they handle that climax. I could never play it myself, but I'm very particular about how it should be done. I've heard it done right (in my eyes) by maybe only three or four people. That's one of the most fun places in music, along with the Bach Chaconne and his BWV 225 Motet.
Thank you!
Upon further reflection, along with Prokofiev's Piano Concerto no. 2 cadenza, the last movement of Bach's Mass in B Minor is pretty gobsmackingly shattering as a climax.