Maurice Ravel-Piano Trio in A minor + Sheets

-Movements
1. Modéré, 0:00
2. Pantoum (Assez vif), 9:52
3. Passacaille: Trés large, 14:23
4. Final: Animé, 21:30
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-Artists
Menuhin-Violin
Cassadó-Cello
Kentner-Piano
Rec-1960
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Score-
imslp.org/wiki/Piano_Trio_(Rav...)
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The trio opens with a movement marked modéré, a sonata whose dreamy themes in a modal cast spaciously float in a surprisingly placid sequence that is more suggestive than argumentative, dream rather than discourse. There are two clear themes. The first is rhythmic, brief and somewhat dark, the second delicate, lyrical and bright, both familiar as Ravel's poetic language. The development focuses chiefly on the first, returns into the gentle dawn of the second and obliquely concludes with elements of both drawn into new harmonic reaches that feel resolved and fully realized in spite of the astonishingly spacious neutrality into which the music melts.
Next comes a glittering scherzo charged with brilliant rhythm and color that immediately recalls a similarly remarkable scherzo in Ravel's quartet. The distinctive sonorities are formed by combinations of pizzicato, octave doublings in the strings and the illuminated writing for piano that first made Ravel famous. These techniques combined with the string trills, harmonics and tremolos found in the other movements describe the deliciously innovative palette from which both Ravel and Debussy painted their musical epiphanies. It is truly amazing that the innovative and complex writing for piano demands the utmost virtuosity yet blends so perfectly without overwhelming the chamber textures. Indeed, Ravel is among the few great originators of new ensemble sonorities. The title "pantoum" refers to a Malaysian form of poetic verse adopted by a variety of French writers of the period and applied here to purely musical language by a most ingenious Ravel. Three different themes alternate and shift positions according to a precise literary plan across multiple stanzas. While following this scheme, Ravel still maintains the clear and simple structure of a scherzo and trio, a ternary form like the Bergerettes.
The third, slow movement is titled Passacaille, the French equivalent to the Italian Passacaglia, an old Baroque theme and variations form built around a ground bass melody that recurs through ever changing contexts. Ravel composed a brilliant eightmeasure theme of ponderous beauty that begins low in the piano, climbs up into the cello, rises soulfully with the violin and continues to be ceremoniously exchanged among the intimately entwined players in a long line that swells and sinks with subtle but profound intensity. Sparse and remote, the misty lament is treated to an especially poignant treatment by a string duo with ancient-sounding hollow harmonies and a final jagged contemplation in the deepest rage of the solo piano, a return to the primordial ground bass. Haunting and timeless, this is the trio's unforgettable center of gravity.
Several commentators have described Ravel's predicament in finishing the trio: with the sudden outbreak of WWI, he became nearly manically compelled to wrap up the composition in order to enlist in military service. Ravel described his own final effort as driven by "insane heroic rage." The music is bright and energetic without any traces of anger, but many argue that the finale's initial promise may have been compromised by haste or distraction. It begins with one of the grandest splashes of color in the literature with compelling new sonorities. The meter alternates between 5/4 and 7/4, unusual time signatures drawn from Basque influence. A wash of triumphant gestures swirl up and down dynamic arcs in a fantasia of shifting tempi. The unmistakably conclusive wave is punctuated by the brief recurrent motif featuring a dotted-rhythm and the fundamental stepwise whole note turns that characterize the themes of all four movements in a typically French but especially subtle cyclic recall. There is energy and sweep but some lament a loss of focus on precise chamber textures as the piano trio strains, through smoke and mirrors, to evoke the grandeur of an orchestra. Yet it is all extraordinary chamber psychedelia. After the variety of meticulous form, mood and motion in the previous movements, the last is a welcome gust, free and wild, a flurry in the wake of a man suddenly called into urgent action on another front.
© Kai Christiansen and Music at Kohl Mansion. All rights reserved.
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[@Dylonely42]

One of the best trios in my opinion.

[@skittybee]

Sooooooo underrated

[@duryi6399]

The best one in ky opinion

[@DrStabkill]

That third movement changed the music I wrote forever after I heard it.

[@grantveebeejay535]

This trio has all one needs: Magic,elegance, rhythm, fleetness , majesty, delicacy,taste,craft. Something to aspire to. Grand merci M.Ravel!

[@freethinkin123]

7:00 just completely melts me every time! Who else would think to harmonize a pentatonic melody like that. Thank you Ravel!!

[@musicremebered1468]

Ravel is my favorite composer, his melodic sense is quite genius. It is a shame he didn't publish many works.

[@AndrewKosinskicomposer]

If diamonds were given away they wouldn't have any value

[@ZAWARUD00]

Ravel was a great composer *because* he published few works. He was perfectionist and spent a lot of time on each single work for our pleasure.

[@NFStopsnuf]

cydrools no subscribers

[@RyanRenteria]

@Matthew Peter Tharappel i totally thought of messiaen too!

[@nm-zx1wf]

5:28's buildup is gorgeous

[@classicalmusic1175]

Majestic music. One of the finest within the genre, in my opinion.

[@maoo2442]

What genre??

[@peteklat]

@@maoo2442 Chamber music. Definitely one of the best.

[@jeremiascristian521]

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[@azureNotsure]

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[@zondebok7992]

Just unbelievable music...never get tired of listening to it. So many favourite parts, e.g. how the start of the fourth movement emerges from the night of the third like a fresh spring morning

[@plumayray2656]

So true) i heard that trio this week in Moscow played by Lucas Debarque and Castro Balbi brothers. Such a charming piece.

[@chopin65]

Imagine if this work didn't exist. How greyer and colder the world would be.

[@darrylschultz9395]

Yep-there'd only be thousands of other great pieces to listen to!🤘😆

[@thecozytrader00]

Ravel, just the best ochestrator that ever lived on this earth, pure genius, i just can't describe how genius and deep this third mov. is, truly magical.

[@Dylonely42]

But there is no description of orchestra here.

[@williamshabecoff4048]

@@Dylonely42 Orchestration can also more broadly refer to good use of instruments and control of the colors each instrument brings. Ravel really pushes this ensemble to the limits of what can be achieved and I think the piece shows a very strong understanding of how to write for these instruments.

[@yanndevaugiraud6817]

The idea of 7/4 time signature + the range of texture in the finale creates probably the most intense impression of the whole chamber repertoire. Sounds like a whole orchestra. Extatic.

[@lorddorogoth]

I love the emotion from the third movement.

[@thepians7755]

24:23- 25:04 my favorite moment of the all trio, so much intense!!!

[@alexs1504]

4:50 absolutely magnificent

[@milgaru]

he's just so good at using black keys

[@darrylschultz9395]

​@milgaru Yes, they say he didn't have a racist bone in his body.

[@qazzaz6842]

9:16 - 9:50 is such a unique sound on the cello.

[@christianvennemann9008]

My newest classical-music earworm, especially the second and final movements 😍😍 (parts of the final movement even sound like precursors to Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand)

[@robertcohn8858]

Magnificent performance by Menuhin, Cassadó and Kentner. The sound quality is a little thin, but that lends to the charm of the recording, giving it a nostalgic quality.

[@pedroa.cantero9449]

Limpia y magistral interpretación de este trío de Ravel, significativo y conmovedor, tanto por lo que expresa como por lo que calla. Escrito en 1914, iniciada la Gran Guerra, el autor lo concibe como faena póstuma, sabiéndose voluntario a los 39 años para ese estrago que acabaría con buena parte de la juventud europea. ¡Cosas de la vida!, necesitaría ese empuje para acabar la obra que tantos años le costara. Ravel reservaría sentimientos contrapuestos a esta pieza ajustada con premura y precisión cuando ya sonaban los cañones en la Marne. Deudor de sus maestros, no por eso deja de mostrarse inventivo. Gracias a esa reminiscencias de un canto vasco que obsesivo se apropia de ritmo y melodía, la primera parte es sin duda alguna memorable. Bajo la forma de un Scherzo chispeante, Ravel intercala la estructura de un poema malasio -el segundo y cuarto verso de cada cuarteto relanzan el primero y tercero del siguiente a modo de un tejido- como lo hicieran Hugo y Baudelaire. ¡Ruptura exótica y liberadora! No hay mejor modo de volver que alejarse. La tierra natal pervive entonces y no cesa de resurgir cambiante y renovada. En la voluntad de enraizarse en su otra vertiente tan francesa, Ravel engarza un pasacalle al modo de una ronda sobre la que incansable voltea hasta la desmesura. «D’une grande tension dramatique, la Passacaille […] exposé à la main gauche du piano, est un long ruban mystérieux de huit mesures que reprennent le violoncelle et le violon. Fidèle à Louis et à François Couperin, qui construisaient leurs passacailles et leurs chaconnes en rondeau plutôt que sur une basse rigoureusement obstinée, Ravel crée une riche ambiance harmonique sur laquelle évolue un lent et poignant crescendo qui s’évanouit peu à peu pour céder la place au dépouillement du thème initial»[1]. Culmina el trio con el arrebato final. Ebrio ya de ritmo y exaltación, alcanza una simbiosis excepcional de los tres instrumentos. Como sostiene Irène Brisson: « Le Finale, d’une grande virtuosité, se ressent de l’écriture orchestrale de Ravel. C’est une sorte de bacchanale qui ramène le rythme à cinq temps (3+2) de la danse basque et qui se nourrit des accords du premier mouvement, de la vivacité du Pantoum et des harmonies de la Passacaille. […] Rarement est-on parvenu à une telle symbiose entre les trois instruments, ce qui en fait un des plus beaux trios du XXe siècle »[2]. [1] Irène Brisson, Triple Forte, ATMA Classique, 2010 [2] Irène Brisson, Triple Forte, ATMA Classique, 2010

[@devarita]

Ravel!

[@irovknbsefkbewbe9419]

This absolutely beautiful piece made me cry when I listened to it for the first time.

[@petertuffley7475]

Wonderful to be able to follow the complex score while listening to this great performance! Thank you!

[@estelleb7619]

une oeuvre admirable. Et merci à vous de nous permettre de la suivre avec la partition !

[@user-mn4cz6jh5x]

Passacaille❤

[@nadastojanovic9585]

I love this celestial music which brings me in other spheres.

[@bananakid111]

Simply wonderful

[@milgaru]

it's actually my first time seeing 8/8 time signature 😮

[@igo.spekkyjarvonvreich]

it's my first time seeing polymetre used! 4/2 with 3/4 in 2nd mvt

[@franflau]

Pure Ravel!

[@Joshua890820]

OMG the violin 😱

[@TempodiPiano]

Thank you for this score, it is really great.

[@asleandere8852]

I've collated and heard hundreds of piano trios many of which I marvel at for many different reasons: it is a joy to discover new works new, performances in this genre. No matter how far I roam, I always return to the common ground: Brahms Piano Trio No 1 in B, Shostakovich Piano Trio No 2 and then, finally ..... this work, this performance, as if it is the very center, somehow.

[@donnytello1544]

As do I, tho I’d include rachmaninoffs piano trios into my list

[@lighting7508]

Schubert?

[@ciararespect4296]

@@donnytello1544 same. I'm. Not keen on this it goes nowhere just harpy type music and awkward rhythms

[@ciararespect4296]

I prefer Mendelssohn trios

[@ZachOnett]

Definitely in my top ten favorite pieces.

[@arielazcurra]

Nunca escuché una música que "describa" tan bien el dolor y la devastación que genera una guerra. Al Passacalle lo considero una radiografía perfecta de la sensación que uno debe sentir al padecer y vivir tal catástrofe. Mercy Ravel. Tu música es y será eterna.

[@raquelfoster1]

MARAVILLOSO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@willcrisp4948]

25:03 to the end. The calm interlude before the storm

[@angelbello1863]

Maravilloso.

[@raulpardo4210]

Maravilloso!

[@kingkyleiv7960]

Ohh soooo beautiful!

[@404_coffee9]

a good classic.

[@Dylonely42]

Ravel’s music is ravishing.

[@Moribus_Artibus]

Oh I just love how that flamboyant violin enters!

[@turtlesfunlife]

Wow Menuhin Kentner and Cassado? Beautiful trio!

[@CaptainPhen]

22:50 those chords!!

[@MrMortadeloyfilemon]

Just triads ;););)

[@kpdelaney6460]

Reminds me of the song Opening from LoZ Majora's Mask kzbin.info/www/bejne/rX2afKSYpq14idE

[@DottoreSM]

6:04 its sparkling

[@zacziegler9235]

Would you believe that i started off the day with lil weezy and ended up here. What a change

[@franckcoinchelin9862]

la musique de Ravel LE beaume pour le coeur.

[@zoink5484]

2:13 uugghhhhhh. *cries*

[@user-nf3kz9ee2n]

21:31 my favorite part.

[@moonjunsu]

9:52

[@jean-marieguezala4135]

This is a typical basque rythme and a dance named "Zortziko" but we right in 5/8 and not in 8/8. Perhaps righting in 8/8 it's better to understand the rhythm ?

[@yungdole861]

Jean-Marie GUEZALA Ravel's mother was basque as well, and the first movement is based off the zortziko rhythm but he added 3 extra beats to turn 5/8 to 8/8

Una locura, a mí me gusta la primera parte

[@thecozytrader00]

10:38 Valse Noble et Sentimentales.

[@jimshulman9221]

magnificent performance, though Cassado was the cellist and Kentner, the pianist.

[@musicremebered1468]

Thank you for the correction!

[@nwcottam]

Do you know if this recording is available on CD or digital media?

[@SissyFlower5]

I can't stop listening to the third movement. It sounds like a sleepy village in the American deep south with a dark secret. Maybe if I listen to it enough times I can figure out what the secret is.

[@kaikd8066]

SissyFlower5 beautiful comment

[@Mezzotenor]

SF5, that's EXACTLY how both music fans and performers embrace great instrumental music - their minds create a story. Keep doing that!

[@stynway59]

If he did his job well, (and I think he did) you never willl...

[@talastra]

Well, if it's a village in the US south, the secret is pretty obvious. SOmeone is having, or has had, a relationship that could get you lynched.

[@vicenteplazaurzua6190]

En que modo esta 24:50?

[@runlinli8965]

4:05

[@Alisha_Woo]

Un cœur en hiver brought me here

[@user-im8je5ld6v]

2,4악장👍

[@moxinxu]

0:59 21:58 sweet

[@OpalFur]

I listened to this being performed in the heart of Warsaw by students from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music on August 3 and instantly fell in love with it. I'm not usually one for atonal music but this is intense and emotional on another level!

[@shaozhongchen5383]

This doesn't at all represent atonal music though...

[@OpalFur]

its atonal for me haha

[@ZAWARUD00]

This work is very "classical" and not at all atonal. The tonality is very respected here. I understand what you are saying because the Ravel's style may be hard to appreciate, but with more listening, everybody like it :)

[@OpalFur]

Coming back to this later, I am now a big fan of Ravel and I've come to understand just how tonal this is compared to some of his other work and compared to other composers. At the time I listened to very Romantic, very tonal pieces and this was my first taste of music that strayed ever so slightly from the "safer" likes of Chopin and Beethoven. I have come to appreciate this and other works that involve less tonal things like whole tone and pieces without keys.

[@TheMikkis100]

OpalFur Thank you, calling this atonal is an insult. I love the music by Ravel and Debussy, because they have their music rooted in tonality while still being very rich and full of beauty. I'm not even that into Beethoven or Chopin, but even more I hate atonal music. It might seem that this type of music is close to atonality, but I'd say that the strength of Ravel, Debussy and many other late/-late) romantic composers is that their music is rooted in tonality, into the beauty of 7th and 11th chords, and new scales such as pentatonic scales and modes.

[@Maestro68Blog]

Op. 67

[@giustofranco8267]

ECCELENZA/G.FRANCO COMPOSITORE-PIANISTA FROM SAVONA

[@jamesonrichards5105]

0:48 2:56 12:10 14:23 21:40 26:10

[@jeremyparsons4940]

Scintillating

[@gokhangokdogan]

I want to use this music in an amateur short film. How can I get permission?

[@LiamFlahertyCounterpoint]

+Gökhan Gökdoğan im pretty sure all his music is open source/free to use without any permission

[@johnrobinsoniii4028]

As in "public domain"?

[@Melchiorblade7]

Some recordings might be public domain. I don't know about this particular one, but some artists allow their recordings to be used by the public. You just have to look around a bit

[@stynway59]

The Ravel estate is particularly tangled up. It may be that copyright has finally expired by now, but my guess is that his housekeeper's family is still holding some strings

[@npelletier89]

Ummmmm the end of the last movement. Whatever Ravel was smoking, I want some of it.

[@chopin65]

He was smoking genius green, buddy. It is very rare shit.

[@flow22ism]

점점몽롱해져오는구만~~~ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[@yumyum__s2]

10:15

[@user-dq5ui5nh5y]

5:24

[@hung-kaiwen2888]

19:58

[@ircensko7324]

6:12

[@flow22ism]

반음진행덕분인강??ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[@henkhollemans3345]

This extremely beautiful piece deserves a much better performance !

[@licoricestic]

well which recording then?

[@andrewfortmusic]

@Palindromeda 33 The Joachim Trio one is a much better performance in my opinion, and the audio quality itself is objectively far superior. I'm mostly on this video so that I can see the sheet music as I listen without having to get out other devices or software.

[@kingkyleiv7960]

@@andrewfortmusic send me link pls

[@andrewfortmusic]

@@kingkyleiv7960 kzbin.info/www/bejne/hoiYip6er6uXaKc Enjoy!

[@thekinecticbrian]

Birdman and RCC

[@GregLewisBeats]

Brian Vuong rcc brought me here too 👌

[@zaxapitsa]

I thought Ravel was nothing but the Boléro for too long. Problem solved, better late than never.

[@Eorzat]

zaxapitsa My god...Ravel is so so much more than Bolero just as Beethoven is so so much more than Fur Elise. I'm glad that you fixed that problem lol

[@zaxapitsa]

@@Eorzat me too! it´s never too late. now I like his music more than Debussy´s. no point comparing but anywho, he´s great.

[@kingkyleiv7960]

Same with Nikolai-korsakov

[@_Aiming]

7:00

[@Dylonely42]

Brahms

[@magplin]

14:22 ... 🎹🙏🙏🙏😂

[@vulkanosaure]

i'm proud to be french, but not because of wine and cheese :)

[@fogonpr]

Ravel was born in Spain to a Spanish mother.

[@ryanhar882]

@@fogonpr where did you get that interesting information from?

[@fogonpr]

@@ryanhar882 Wikipedia. Actually, Ravel was pretty proud of it. Spain was seen at the time as somewhere exotic to be. He uses Spanish motives like the repetition of notes to simulate a guitar. You hear it for example in Alborada del gracioso from his Mirroirs suite. That's the 4th movement. And in his famous Scarbo from his other suite Gaspard de la nuit. He didn't speak Spanish thought, but his mother liked to sing to him classical Spanish songs. Spanish Lieder if you want to use the term. By the way, you should realize that Alborada del gracioso is in Spanish for that exact reason

[@fogonpr]

@@ryanhar882 No No, I'm wrong sorry. He was born in a Basque territory 11 miles from Spain. But her mother was Basque with Spanish heritage. I can believe I was so wrong. Sorry!

[@fogonpr]

@@ryanhar882 Apparently her mother was Basque but grew up in Madrid. The Basque are in between the French and Spanish border. Some part touches Spain and the other France. Her mother came from that region but was raised as someone from Spain. But it says that he had Spanish heritage so I'm not even sure anymore. Don't listen to what I'm saying. I've probably mixed in few things here. I'll have to do more research. Sorry for the confusion.

[@lukasobrusnik4460]

Play this in 0,75 speed... this Sounds so magical!!!!

[@magplin]

Megumi Shimizu xoxo 😘 my spirit out there !

[@NadekFax]

La la lala lalalaa...

[@all4aching]

WTF was that?

[@13kmawayfromyou39]

What’s wrong

[@all4aching]

@@13kmawayfromyou39 Absolutely nothing. It's magnificent. I was trying to be amusing.

[@Dylonely42]

18:38

[@Dylonely42]

26:10