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Ravel: L'heure Espagnole, Etc / Previn, London So


Release Date: 07/20/1999 
Label:  Deutsche Grammophon   Catalog #: 457590   Spars Code: DDD 
Composer:  Maurice Ravel
Performer:  Kurt Ollmann,  Kimberly Barber,  Georges Gautier,  David Wilson-Johnson,   ... 
Conductor:  André Previn
Orchestra/Ensemble:  London Symphony Orchestra
Number of Discs: 1 
Recorded in: Stereo 
Length: 1 Hours 10 Mins. 

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Notes and Editorial Reviews

Perhaps the most striking aspect of Maurice Ravel's first opera, 'L'heure espagnole,' is the extent to which it already bears the composers unique stamp. Enamored by the music of Claude Debussy, the young Ravel attended all 14 performances of that composers 'Pelléas et Mélisande' in its first season in 1902. While not deaf to the compositional issues raised by Debussy's masterpiece (issues that Ravel later tackles in 'L'Enfant et les Sortilèges),' Ravel's concerns in this comic tale of a Spanish clockmaker and his philandering wife seem to lie elsewhere. 'L'heure espagnole' charts a distinctive course, attempting, as Ravel put it, "to breathe new life into Italian opera buffa: following only the principle...[for] the French language, like Read more any other, has its own accents and inflections of pitch."
Completed in 1908, on the heels of 'L'heure espagnole,' 'Rapsodie espagnole' (which rounds out this disk) anticipates Ravel's duly famous hypnotic orchestral dances, 'La Valse' and 'Boléro.' André Previn has assembled a vocally nimble cast for this appealing recording of Ravel's ensemble comedy. The London Symphony Orchestra renders the nuanced score with precision and charm. Similarly, their performance of Ravels 'Rapsodie espagnole' is vigorous and clean. Read less

Works on This Recording

1. L'heure espagnole by Maurice Ravel
Performer:  Kurt Ollmann (Baritone), Kimberly Barber (Soprano), Georges Gautier (Tenor),
David Wilson-Johnson (Bass), John Mark Ainsley (Tenor)
Conductor:  André Previn
Orchestra/Ensemble:  London Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1907-1909; France 
 Date of Recording: 06/1997 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London 
Length: 53 Minutes 4 Secs. 
Language: French 
2. Rapsodie espagnole by Maurice Ravel
Conductor:  André Previn
Orchestra/Ensemble:  London Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1907-1908; France 
 Date of Recording: 06/1997 
Venue:  EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London 
Length: 16 Minutes 37 Secs. 
Language: French 

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