Program Notes
Maurice Ravel Jeux d’eau, M. 30 Miroirs, M. 43
worldview and social circle while his influence and reputation grew.
In 1902, 27-year-old Maurice Ravel was working diligently and determinedly to make a name for himself. Having been dismissed from his piano studies at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1895 following prolonged tensions with the conservative faculty, Ravel returned to the school in 1897 as a composition student, working under the tutelage of Gabriel Fauré. It was over the next few years that Ravel’s mature musical style and personality would emerge, thanks in large part to Fauré’s guidance and understanding. However, while his Pavane pour une infante défunte met with early success upon its completion in 1899, Ravel made numerous attempts, unsuccessfully, to win the Prix de Rome and in 1900 was once again expelled from the Conservatoire.
frédéric chopin Nocturne in F-sharp minor, Op. 48, No. 2 Nocturne in F-sharp major, Op. 15, No. 2 Trois nouvelles études, B. 130
The three selections by Frédéric Chopin in this performance frame the decade of the 1830s, a period that began with the Polish pianist-composer’s first ventures onto the European concert stage at age 19 and ended with the composer’s health in such a deteriorated state that his musical activities were largely curtailed. The Nocturnes, Op. 15 (1830-1833), written while Chopin was abroad in the midst of and just after Poland’s November Uprising, were completed as the pianist was piquing the interest of major musical figures in Vienna and Paris. The composer’s Trois nouvelle études, B. 130 (1839-40), completed for Jeux d’eau (1901) and Miroirs (1904-1905) inclusion in a book on piano technique, on were composed during this turbulent time, the other hand, came at a low point in which marked an important transition for terms of Chopin’s creative and physical Ravel, from youth and obscurity to matu- well-being, after he had settled into an rity and recognition. The two pieces also unstable living situation with author George reveal the composer’s allegiances and ins- Sand. And the Nocturnes, Op. 48, completed pirations. Jeux d’eau (Water Games) is a in 1841, represent a period in which the character piece dedicated to Fauré and likely composer had gained a stellar reputation modeled after a similar work by Liszt, while but was plagued by self-doubt and the Miroirs is a five-movement suite with each burden of perfectionism, while at the same section dedicated to a fellow member of time his health and relationship with Sand Les Apaches, the group of “ruffians” with continued to deteriorate. Across these three whom Ravel began to associate around selections, and in spite of the very different 1902. Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes, a mem- biographical periods they mark, Chopin’s ber of Les Apaches who was a close friend brilliantly idiomatic pianistic writing is of Ravel’s and the first performer of both wholly evident. of these works, furthered the composer’s cultural education, expanding Ravel’s