Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit: Scarbo; Jeffrey Chappell, pianist

From the March 31, 2015 recital at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. "Gaspard de la Nuit" translates as "Keeper of the Treasures of the Night" and is the title of a collection of prose-poems by the French author Aloysius Bertrand, whose writing was influenced by that of Edgar Allen Poe. Ravel took three of these prose-poems and used them as inspiration, giving the resulting piece the subtitle of "Three Poems for Piano". "Scarbo" tells of a demonic being who appears to a man at night when he tries to go to sleep, tormenting him by scratching on the bed curtains and dive-bombing around the room, at times spinning like a top, at other times growing to gigantic size or shrinking to nothing, ending by glowing blue and suddenly becoming extinguished like a candle flame. Ravel had the intention for "Scarbo" to be the most difficult piano piece ever written.