Compact Discoveries 30: Ravel as Pianist and Conductor

Summary:

Maurice Ravel plays his own piano compositions in high fidelity, stereo!

Website:

http://www.compactdiscoveries.com

Additional Credits and Funding:

Underwriting at the end for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Public Radio Exchange Reversioning Project, lasting a total of 15 seconds, and included in the 58 minute timing of the program.

Tones:

Authoritative, Informational, Unusual

Language:

English

Description:

Compact Discoveries Program 30: Maurice Ravel, the Composer, as Pianist and Conductor

Producer/host Fred Flaxman presents nothing less than a miracle! What else would you call it when the composer, Maurice Ravel, who died in 1937, comes back to life and plays his piece for you in full high fidelity, stereo sound in your living room, bedroom or automobile!

Fortunately for us, the lifetime of Maurice Ravel paralleled the birth of the phonograph and the earliest developments in the recording industry. And as further luck would have it, all the solo piano recordings he made playing his own compositions were made not on the early phonograph machines, but on uniquely coded piano rolls that accurately reproduce the dynamic of each note or chord as well as the pianist?s pedaling and note placement. When played back on a properly equipped piano, these rolls are capable of reproducing every nuance of the performance. That?s why they are called reproducing piano rolls.

Ravel recorded some of his most famous pieces using this method: "Valses nobles et sentimentales," his "Sonatine," "Miroirs," and "Pavane pour une Infante defunte." These are the works presented in this program as played by their composer. The hour ends with Ravel conducting his most famous piece, "Bolero," from a phonograph record that has been cleaned up and restored, but is not a miracle of high fidelity sound.

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