Coordinates | 33°55′31″N18°25′26″N |
---|---|
name | Maurice Ravel |
birth name | Joseph Maurice Ravel |
birth date | March 07, 1875 |
birth place | Ciboure, France |
death date | December 28, 1937 |
death place | Paris |
resting place | Levallois-Perret |
nationality | French |
occupation | Composer |
partner | None |
relatives | Marie Delouart, Joseph Ravel }} |
Ravel's piano compositions, such as ''Jeux d'eau'', ''Miroirs'', ''Le tombeau de Couperin'' and ''Gaspard de la nuit'', demand considerable virtuosity from the performer, and his orchestral music, including ''Daphnis et Chloé'' and his arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's ''Pictures at an Exhibition'', uses a variety of sound and instrumentation.
Ravel is perhaps known best for his orchestral work ''Boléro'' (1928), which he considered trivial and once described as "a piece for orchestra without music."
According to SACEM, Ravel's estate earns more royalties than that of any other French composer. According to international copyright law, Ravel's works have been in the public domain since January 1, 2008, in most countries. In France, due to anomalous copyright law extensions to account for the two world wars, they will not enter the public domain until 2015.
Ravel was very fond of his mother, and her Basque heritage was a strong influence on his life and music. Among his earliest memories are folk songs she sang to him. The family moved to Paris three months after the birth of Maurice, and there his younger brother Édouard was born. Édouard became his father’s favorite and also became an engineer.
Though obviously talented at the piano, Ravel demonstrated a preference for composing. He was particularly impressed by the new Russian works conducted by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the Exposition Universelle in 1889. The foreign music at the exhibition also had a great influence on Ravel’s contemporaries Erik Satie, Emmanuel Chabrier, and most significantly Claude Debussy. That year Ravel also met Ricardo Viñes, who would become one of his best friends, one of the foremost interpreters of his piano music, and an important link between Ravel and Spanish music. The students shared an appreciation for Richard Wagner, the Russian school, and the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, and Stéphane Mallarmé.
After failing to meet the requirement of earning a competitive medal in three consecutive years, Ravel was expelled during 1895. He turned down a music professorship in Tunisia then returned to the Conservatoire in 1898 and started his studies with Gabriel Fauré, determined to focus on composing rather than piano playing. He studied composition with Fauré until he was dismissed from the class in 1900 for having won neither the fugue nor the composition prize. He remained an auditor with Fauré until he left the Conservatoire in 1903. Ravel found his teacher’s personality and methods sympathetic and they remained friends and colleagues. He also undertook private studies with André Gedalge, whom he later stated was responsible for "the most valuable elements of my technique." Ravel studied the ability of each instrument carefully in order to determine the possible effects, and was sensitive to their color and timbre. This may account for his success as an orchestrator and as a transcriber of his own piano works and those of other composers, such as Mussorgsky, Debussy and Schumann.
His first significant work, ''Habanera'' for two pianos, was later transcribed into the well-known third movement of his ''Rapsodie espagnole'', which he dedicated to Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot, another of his professors at the Conservatoire. His first published work was ''Menuet antique'', dedicated to and premiered by Viñes. In 1899, Ravel conducted his first orchestral piece, ''Shéhérazade'', and was greeted by a raucous mixture of boos and applause. The critics were somewhat unfavorable, ''e.g.'' reviling him as "a jolting debut: a clumsy plagiarism of the Russian School" and terming him a “mediocrely gifted debutante ... who will perhaps become something if not someone in about ten years, if he works hard.” As the most gifted composer of his class and as a leader, with Debussy, of avant-garde French music, Ravel would continue to have a difficult time with the critics for some time to come. Around 1900, Ravel joined with a number of innovative young artists, poets, critics, and musicians who were referred to as the ''Apaches'' (hooligans), a name coined by Viñes to represent his band of "artistic outcasts". The group met regularly until the beginning of World War I and the members often inspired each other with intellectual argument and performances of their works before the group. For a time, the influential group included Igor Stravinsky and Manuel de Falla. One of the first works Ravel performed for the Apaches was ''Jeux d'eau'', his first piano masterpiece and clearly a pathfinding impressionistic work. Viñes performed the public premiere of this piece and Ravel's other early masterpiece ''Pavane pour une infante défunte'' during 1902.
During his years at the Conservatoire, Ravel tried numerous times to win the prestigious Prix de Rome, but to no avail; he was probably considered too radical by the conservatives, including Director Théodore Dubois. One of Ravel's pieces, the String Quartet in F, probably modeled on Debussy’s Quartet (1893), is now a standard work of chamber music, though at the time it was criticized and found lacking academically. After a scandal involving his loss of the prize during 1905 to Victor Gallois, despite being favored to win, Ravel left the Conservatoire. The incident – named the "Ravel Affair" by the Parisian press – engaged the entire artistic community, pitting conservatives against the avant-garde, and eventually caused the resignation of Dubois and his replacement by Fauré, a vindication of sorts for Ravel. Though deprived of the opportunity to study in Rome, the decade after the scandal proved to be Ravel's most productive, and included his "Spanish period".
Ravel wrote that Debussy’s “genius was obviously one of great individuality, creating its own laws, constantly in evolution, expressing itself freely, yet always faithful to French tradition. For Debussy, the musician and the man, I have had profound admiration, but by nature I am different from Debussy.” Ravel further stated, “I think I have always personally followed a direction opposed to that of the symbolism of Debussy.” As Ravel said, “It is probably better after all for us to be on frigid terms for illogical reasons.”
Ravel further extended his mastery of impressionistic piano music with ''Gaspard de la nuit'', based on a collection by the same name by Aloysius Bertrand, with some influence from the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, particularly in the second part. Viñes, as usual, performed the premiere but his performance displeased Ravel, and their relationship became strained from then on. For future premieres, Ravel replaced Viñes with Marguerite Long. Also unhappy with the conservative musical establishment which was discouraging performance of new music, around this time Ravel, Fauré, and some of his pupils formed the Société musicale indépendante (SMI). During 1910, the society presented the premiere of Ravel’s ''Ma mère l'oye'' (Mother Goose) in its original piano duet version. With this work, Ravel followed in the tradition of Schumann, Mussorgsky, and Debussy, who also created memorable works of childhood themes. During 1912, Ravel's ''Ma mère l'oye'' was performed as a ballet (with added music) after being first transcribed from piano to orchestra. Looking to expand his contacts and career, Ravel made his first foreign tours to England and Scotland during 1909 and 1911.
During 1920, the French government awarded Ravel the Légion d'honneur, but he refused it. The next year, he retired to the French countryside where he continued to write music, albeit even less prolifically, but in more tranquil surroundings. He returned regularly to Paris for performances and socializing, and increased his foreign concert tours. Ravel maintained his influential participation with the SMI which continued its active role of promoting new music, particularly of British and American composers such as Arnold Bax, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Aaron Copland, and Virgil Thomson. With Debussy’s death, Ravel became perceived popularly as the main composer of French classical music. As Fauré stated in a letter to Ravel in October 1922, “I am happier than you can imagine about the solid position which you occupy and which you have acquired so brilliantly and so rapidly. It is a source of joy and pride for your old professor.” During 1922, Ravel completed his ''Sonata for Violin and Cello''. Dedicated to Debussy’s memory, the work features the thinner texture popular with the younger postwar composers. Ravel was fully aware of this, and was mostly effective in preventing a serious breach between his generation of musicians and the younger group. These trends posed challenges for Ravel, always a slow and deliberate composer, who desired to keep his music relevant but still revered the past. This may have played a part in his declining output and longer composing time during the 1920s. Around this time, he also completed ''Chansons madécasses'', the summit of his vocal art.
During 1927, Ravel’s String Quartet received its first complete recording. By this time Ravel, like Edward Elgar, had become convinced of the importance of recording his works, especially with his input and direction. He made recordings nearly every year from then until his death. That same year, he completed and premiered his Sonata for Violin and Piano, his last chamber work, with its second movement (titled “Blues”) gaining much attention.
Ravel also served as a juror with Florence Meyer Blumenthal in awarding the Prix Blumenthal, a grant given between 1919 and 1954 to young French painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians.
After two months of planning, during 1928 Ravel made a four-month concert tour in North America, for a promised minimum of $10,000 The noted critic Olin Downes wrote, “Mr. Ravel has pursued his way as an artist quietly and very well. He has disdained superficial or meretricious effects. He has been his own most unsparing critic.” Ravel conducted most of the leading orchestras in the U.S. from coast to coast and visited twenty-five cities.
He also met the American composer George Gershwin in New York and went with him to hear jazz in Harlem, probably hearing some of the famous jazz musicians such as Duke Ellington. There is a story that when Gershwin met Ravel, he mentioned that he would like to study with the French composer. According to Gershwin, the Frenchman retorted, "Why do you want to become a second-rate Ravel when you are already a first-rate Gershwin?" The second part of the story has Ravel asking Gershwin how much money he made. Upon hearing Gershwin's reply, Ravel suggested that maybe ''he'' should study with Gershwin. This tale may well be apocryphal: Gershwin seems also to have told a near-identical story about a conversation with Arnold Schoenberg, and some have claimed it was with Igor Stravinsky. (See George Gershwin.) In any event, this had to have been before Ravel wrote ''Boléro'', which became financially very successful for him.
Ravel then visited New Orleans and imbibed the jazz scene there as well. His admiration of jazz, increased by his American visit, caused him to include some jazz elements in a few of his later compositions, especially the two piano concertos. The great success of his American tour made Ravel famous internationally.
Remarkably, Ravel composed both of his piano concertos simultaneously. He completed the Concerto for the Left Hand first. The work was commissioned by Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm during World War I. Ravel was inspired by the technical challenges of the project. As Ravel stated, “In a work of this kind, it is essential to give the impression of a texture no thinner than that of a part written for both hands.” At the premiere of the work, Ravel, not proficient enough to perform the work with only his left hand, played two-handed and Wittgenstein was reportedly underwhelmed by it. But later Wittgenstein stated, “Only much later, after I’d studied the concerto for months, did I become fascinated by it and realized what a great work it was.” In 1933, Wittgenstein played the work in concert for the first time to instant acclaim. Critic Henry Prunières wrote, “From the opening measures, we are plunged into a world in which Ravel has but rarely introduced us.” Ravel dedicated the work to his favorite pianist, Marguerite Long, who played it and popularized it across Europe in over twenty cities, and they recorded it together during 1932. EMI later reissued the 1932 recording on LP and CD. Although Ravel was listed as the conductor on the original 78-rpm discs, it is possible he merely supervised the recording.
Ravel, ever modest, was bemused by the critics' sudden favor of him since his American tour, “Didn’t I represent to the critics for a long time the most perfect example of insensitivity and lack of emotion?... And the successes they have given me in the past few years are just as unimportant.” However, afterwards he began to experience aphasia-like symptoms and was frequently absent-minded. He had begun work on music for a film, ''Adventures of Don Quixote'' (1933) from Miguel de Cervantes's celebrated novel, featuring the Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin and directed by G. W. Pabst. When Ravel became unable to compose, and could not write down the musical ideas he heard in his mind, Pabst hired Jacques Ibert. However, three songs for baritone and orchestra that Ravel composed for the film were later published under the title ''Don Quichotte a Dulcinée'', and have been performed and recorded. This accords with an earlier article, published in a journal of neurology, that closely examines Ravel's clinical history and argues that his works ''Boléro'' and Piano Concerto for the Left Hand both indicate the impacts of neurological disease. This is contradicted somewhat, however, by the earlier cited comments by Ravel about how he created the deliberately repetitious theme for ''Boléro''.
In late 1937, Ravel consented to experimental brain surgery. One hemisphere of his brain was re-inflated with serous fluid. He awoke from the surgery, called for his brother Édouard, lapsed into a coma and died shortly afterwards at the age of 62. Ravel probably died as a result of the brain surgery, with the underlying cause arguably being a brain injury caused by the automobile accident in 1932, and not from a brain tumor as some believe. This confusion may arise because his friend George Gershwin had died from a brain tumor only five months earlier. Ravel was buried with his parents in a granite tomb at the cemetery at Levallois-Perret, a suburb of northwest Paris.
A recent hypothesis presented by David Lamaze, a composition teacher at the Conservatoire de Rennes in France, is that he hid in his music representations of the nickname and the name of Misia Godebska, transcribed into two groups of notes, Godebska = G D E B A and Misia = Mi + Si + A = E B A. He was invited onto her boat during a 1905 cruise on the Rhine after his failure at the Prix de Rome, for which her husband, Alfred Edwards, organized a scandal in the newspapers. This same man owned the Casino de Paris where the Ravel family had a number staged, ''Tourbillon de la mort'' (A Car Somersault). The family of her half-brother, Cipa Godebski, is said to have been like a second family for Ravel. In 1907 on Misia's boat ''L'Aimée'', Ravel completed ''L'heure espagnole'' and the ''Rapsodie espagnole,'' and at the premiere of ''Daphnis et Chloé'', Ravel arrived late and did not go to his box but to Misia's, where he offered her a Japanese doll. In her memoires, Misia hid all these facts.
Ravel's musical language was ultimately very original, neither absolutely modernist nor impressionist. Like Debussy, Ravel categorically refused this description of “impressionist” which he believed was reserved exclusively for painting.
Ravel was a remarkable synthesist of disparate styles. His music matured early into his innovative and distinct style. As a student, he studied the scores of composers of the past methodically: as he stated, "in order to know one's own craft, one must study the craft of others." Though he liked the new French music, during his youth Ravel still felt fond of the older French styles of Franck and the Romanticism of Beethoven and Wagner. Following the teachings of Gédalge, Ravel placed high importance on melody, once stating to Vaughan Williams, that there is "an implied melodic outline in all vital music." He was inspired by various dances, his favorite being the minuet, composing the ''Menuet sur le nom d'Haydn'' during 1908, to commemorate the centenary of the death of Joseph Haydn. Other forms from which Ravel drew material include the forlane, rigaudon, waltz, czardas, habanera, passacaglia, and the boléro.
He believed that composers should be aware of both individual and national consciousness. For him, Basque music was influential. He intended to write an earlier concerto, ''Zazpiak Bat'', but it was never finished. The title is a result of his Basque heritage: meaning 'The Seven Are One' (see ''Zazpiak Bat''), it refers to the seven Basque regions, and was a motto often used in association with the idea of a Basque nation. Instead, Ravel abandoned the piece, using its nationalistic themes and rhythms in some of his other pieces. Ravel also used other folk themes including Hebraic, Greek, and Hungarian.
Ravel has almost always been considered one of the two great French impressionist composers, the other being Debussy. In reality Ravel was much more than an Impressionist (and in fact he resented being labelled as such). For example, he made extensive use of rollicking jazz tunes in his Piano Concerto in G Major in the first and third movements. Ravel also imitates Paganini's and Liszt's virtuoso gypsy themes and technique in ''Tzigane''. In his ''À la manière de...Borodine'' (''In the manner of...Borodin''), Ravel plays with the ability to both mimic and remain original. In a more complex situation, ''A la maniere de...Emmanuel Chabrier/Paraphrase sur un air de Gounod ("Faust IIème acte")'', Ravel takes on a theme from Gounod's ''Faust'' and arranges it in the style of Chabrier. He also composed short pieces in the manner of Haydn and his teacher Fauré. Even in writing in the style of others, Ravel's own voice as a composer remained distinct.
Ravel considered himself in many ways a classicist. He often relied on traditional forms, such as the ternary form, as well as traditional structures as ways of presenting his new melodic and rhythmic content, and his innovative harmonies. Ravel stated, "If I were called upon to do so, I would ask to be allowed to identify myself with the simple pronouncements made by Mozart ... He confined himself to saying that there is nothing that music cannot undertake to do, or dare, or portray, provided it continues to charm and always remain music." He often masked the sections of his structure with transitions that disguised the beginnings of the motif. This is apparent in his ''Valses nobles et sentimentales'' – inspired by Franz Schubert's collections, ''Valses nobles'' and ''Valses sentimentales'' – where the seven movements begin and end without pause, and in his chamber music where many movements are in sonata-allegro form, hiding the change from developmental sections to recapitulation.
From his own experience, Ravel was cognizant of the effect of new music on the ears of the public and he insightfully wrote:
On the initial performance of a new musical composition, the first impression of the public is generally one of reaction to the more superficial elements of its music, that is to say, to its external manifestations rather than to its inner content…often it is not until years after, when the means of expression have finally surrendered all their secrets, that the real inner emotion of the music becomes apparent to the listener.
More specifically he stated:
”In my own compositions I judge a long period of conscious gestation necessary. During this interval I come progressively, and with growing precision, to see the form and the evolution that the final work will take in its tonality. Thus I can be occupied for several years without writing a single note of the work, after which composition goes relatively quickly. But one must spend much time in eliminating all that could be regarded as superfluous in order to realize as completely as possible the definitive clarity so much desired. The moment arrives when new conceptions must be formulated for the final composition, but they cannot be artificially forced for they come only of their own accord, often deriving their original from some far-off perception and only manifesting themselves after long years.” For example, ''Gaspard de la nuit'' can be viewed as an extension of Liszt’s virtuosity and advanced harmonics. Even Ravel’s most difficult pieces, however, are marked by elegance and refinement. Walter Gieseking found some of Ravel’s piano works to be among the most difficult pieces for the instrument but always based on “musically perfectly logical concepts”; not just technically demanding but also requiring the right expression. In writing for the other sections, he often preferred to score ''in tutti'' to produce a full, clear resonance. To add surprise and added color, the melody might start with one instrument and be continued with another.Because of his perfectionism and methods, Ravel’s musical output over four decades is quite small. Most of his works were thought out over considerable lengths of time, then notated quickly, and refined painstakingly. When a piece would not progress, he would abandon a piece until inspired anew. There are only about sixty compositions in all, of which slightly more than half are instrumental. Ravel’s body of work includes pieces for piano, chamber works, two piano concerti, ballet music, opera, and song cycles.
Ravel crafted his manuscripts meticulously, and relentlessly polished and corrected them. He destroyed hundreds of sketches and even re-copied entire autographs to correct one mistake. Early printed editions of his works were prone to errors so he worked painstakingly with his publisher, Durand, to correct them. One London critic stated "His baton is not the magician's wand of a virtuoso conductor. He just stood there beating time and keeping watch." As to how his music was to be played, Ravel was always clear and direct with his instructions.
Though never a paid critic as Debussy had been, Ravel had strong opinions on historical and contemporary music and musicians, which influenced his younger contemporaries. In creating his own music, he tended to avoid the more monumental composers as models, finding relatively little kinship with or inspiration from Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Hector Berlioz, or Franck. However, as an outspoken commentator on the Romantic giants, he found much of Beethoven "exasperating", Wagner's influence "pernicious" and Berlioz's harmony "clumsy". He had considerable admiration for other 19th century masters such as Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, and Schubert. Despite what he considered its technical deficiencies, Ravel was a strong advocate of Russian music and praised its spontaneity, orchestral color, and exoticism.
Notable compositions
''Menuet antique'' (piano, 1895, orchestrated in 1929) ''Shéhérazade (ouverture de féerie)'' (1897) ''Pavane pour une infante défunte'' ("Pavane for a dead infanta") (piano 1899, orchestra 1910) ''Jeux d'eau'' (piano, 1901) String Quartet in F major (1902–3) ''Shéhérazade'' (orchestral song cycle, 1903) Setting poems by his friend Tristan Klingsor ''Sonatine'' (piano, 1903–1905) ''Introduction and Allegro'' (pedal harp, flute, clarinet, string quartet, 1905) ''Miroirs'' ("Reflections") (piano, 1905): *''Noctuelles'' ("Night moths") *''Oiseaux tristes'' ("Sad birds") *''Une barque sur l'océan'' ("A boat on the ocean"; orchestrated 1906) *''Alborada del Gracioso'' ("Dawn song of the jester"; orchestrated 1918) *''La vallée des cloches'' ("Valley of the bells") ''Histoires naturelles'' ("Tales from nature") (song cycle for voice and piano, text by Jules Renard, 1906) ''Pièce en forme de Habanera'' (bass voice and piano, 1907) ''Rapsodie espagnole'' ("Spanish Rhapsody") (orchestra, 1907) ''L'heure espagnole'' ("The Spanish Hour") (opera, 1907–1909) ''Gaspard de la nuit'' ("Demons of the night") (piano, 1908) ''Ma Mère l'Oye'' ("Mother Goose") (piano duet 1908–1910, orchestrated 1911, expanded into ballet 1912) ''Daphnis et Chloé'' ("Daphnis and Chloé") (ballet, 1909–1912) ''Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé'', (voice, piano, flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet and string quartet, 1913) ''Valses nobles et sentimentales'' ("Noble and Sentimental Waltzes") (piano 1911, orchestra 1912) Piano Trio A minor (1914) ''Le Tombeau de Couperin'' ("Tombeau for Couperin"; piano 1914–1917; movements I, III, IV and V orchestrated 1919) *I. Prelude *II. Fugue *III. Forlane *IV. Rigaudon *V. Minuet *VI. Toccata ''La Valse'' (choreographic poem, 1906–1914 and 1919–1920) Sonata for Violin and Cello in C Major (1920–1922) ''Chansons Madécasses'' ("Songs of Madagascar") (voice, flute, cello and piano, text by Evariste Parny, 1926) ''L'enfant et les sortilèges'' ("The Child and the Spells", lyric fantasy, 1920–1925, libretto by Colette 1917) ''Tzigane'' (violin and piano, 1924) Sonata for Violin and Piano in G major (1923–1927) ''Fanfare'' (1927; for the children's ballet ''L'Éventail de Jeanne'', to which ten French composers each contributed a dance) ''Boléro'' (ballet, 1928) Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D major (1929–1930; composed for Paul Wittgenstein) Piano Concerto in G (1929–1931) ''Don Quichotte à Dulcinée'' ("Serenade of Don Quixote to Dulcinea"; voice and piano, 1932–1933)
Media depictions
Canadian filmmaker Larry Weinstein has produced two documentaries about Ravel, ''Ravel'' (1987) and ''Ravel's Brain'' (2001). The second of these two films dramatizes the musician's illness and death.Maurice Ravel is played as a "bit role" by actor Oscar Loraine in the 1945 Gershwin film biography ''Rhapsody in Blue''.
See also
Compositions by Maurice Ravel Expressionism Impressionist music Ravel scale
Notes
References
Further reading
External links
}}Free Scores
www.kreusch-sheet-music.net – Free Scores by Ravel
Miscellaneous
Maurice Ravel Frontispice at www.maurice-ravel.netEpitonic.com: Maurice Ravel featuring a track from ''Miroirs'' and ''Gaspard De La Nuit'' Biography of Maurice Ravel The mystery of the missing Bolero millions – an artist's rights saga! – and a tale of greed? Many quotations about Ravel's personality Maurice Ravel "Vocalise Etude en form de Habanera" sung by Varda Kotler.
Recordings
Piano Rolls (The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation) Maurice Ravel on Wikilivres
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This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Hélène Grimaud (born November 7, 1969) is a French pianist and writer.
At 21, Grimaud moved to Florida, United States, and later lived outside New York City. After some time spent in Berlin, she currently resides in Switzerland. She is known for her passion for wolves, which she studies and raises. She now divides her time between her musical career and the Wolf Conservation Center, which she co-founded with her then-companion, the photographer J. Henry Fair. She also experiences synesthesia, where one physical sense adds input to another, for example tasting words, or in her case, seeing music as color.
She performed at the Last Night of the BBC Proms in London in September 2008, playing the piano part of Beethoven's Choral Fantasia.
; On Erato
; On Teldec
; On Deutsche Grammophon
; On Philips
; On ACA Digital Recording, Inc
Category:French classical pianists Category:Jewish classical pianists Category:French Jews Category:1969 births Category:Living people Category:People with synesthesia Category:Alumni of the Conservatoire de Paris Category:French conservationists Category:French expatriates in Switzerland
ca:Hélène Grimaud cs:Hélène Grimaud de:Hélène Grimaud fr:Hélène Grimaud it:Hélène Grimaud lb:Hélène Grimaud nl:Hélène Grimaud ja:エレーヌ・グリモー pl:Hélène Grimaud ru:Гримо, Элен zh:埃萊娜·格里莫This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
In 1981, Eschenbach became principal guest conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, and was chief conductor from 1982 to 1986. Other posts have included Music Director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra (1988–1999), where he now holds the title of Conductor Laureate; co-artistic director of the Pacific Music Festival, from 1992 to 1998; chief conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg (1998–2004); and music director of the Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1994–2005). In addition, he was artistic director of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival from 1999 until 2003. Since 2000, Eschenbach has been the Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris; in May 2007, it was announced that Eschenbach would conclude his tenure with the Orchestre de Paris in 2010. In addition, from 2003 till 2008 Eschenbach was the Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 2010 he assumed his position as Music Director of both the National Symphony Orchestra and the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Christoph Eschenbach has made more than 80 recordings as piano soloist, conductor, or both, has appeared in several television documentaries, and has made many concert broadcasts for different European, Japanese and U.S. networks.
Having received great mentoring guidance in his early years as a conductor through both Herbert von Karajan and George Szell, Eschenbach is credited with helping and supporting talented young musicians in their career development, including soprano Renée Fleming, pianists Tzimon Barto and Lang Lang, cellists Claudio Bohórquez, and Daniel Müller-Schott, and soprano Marisol Montalvo.
Yet the most pronounced characteristic of Eschenbach's tenure has been the continuing worship of him by the orchestra's musicians. "He's the kind of person who inspires absolute loyalty," said Fliegel, who ticked off some of the things that have made Eschenbach so unusual. "With him all rehearsals are special. They're so instructive." Eschenbach always seems to find a new detail to emphasize or a new insight to impart, even with pieces everyone has played many times.
The musicians have also adored Eschenbach's sensitivity to them as human beings. In the months before Fliegel retired in September 1995, for example, his wife was seriously ill; Eschenbach showed great sensitivity to Fliegel's schedule in caring for her. ...
The Houston Symphony has had an extraordinary list of music directors during Fliegel's association with the orchestra, but Fliegel ranks Eschenbach first.
In honor of his many achievements and tenure with the Houston Symphony, the City of Houston placed a bronze commemorative star with his name in front of Jones Hall, the performance home of the Houston symphony.
"'When this announcement was proclaimed after a half-hour meeting with us, there wasn't applause; there was criticism,' recalled a musician with the Philadelphia Orchestra. 'One member of the search committee got up and said, "You'll see, you'll like him."'The orchestra was taken aback by the attitude because there was no meeting to verify what we thought,' the musician said. 'There was no chemistry with Eschenbach. He hasn't conducted us in four or five years and 20 to 30 persons had never played with him.'"
In a 2004 article, Eschenbach tried to downplay such statements, and noted his own particular style of interpretation:
"I prefer to have flexible tempos and not be fixed. Quicker tempos tend to court superficiality."
Partway into his tenure, his initial 3-year contract was renewed to 2008.
However, in October 2006, the orchestra and Eschenbach announced that he would conclude his tenure in Philadelphia at the close of the 2007-2008 season. In the weeks prior to his departure, ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' music critics Peter Dobrin and David Patrick Stearns had contrasting articles whether or not he should be retained, with Dobrin suggesting that Eschenbach should move on and Stearns arguing that Eschenbach should remain. Other harsh criticism of Eschenbach's tenure in Philadelphia has been aired.
Following the announcement, Dobrin in the ''Inquirer'' wrote that Eschenbach's tenure in Philadelphia has been difficult for many musicians:
"In three seasons, Eschenbach and the orchestra have produced a handful of brilliant concerts. More often, though, his rehearsals and performances have elicited a long list of complaints from musicians: getting lost in the score at concerts; leading disorganized rehearsals and then asking for overtime; and insisting on a peculiar rushing and slowing of tempos."
The paper also cited a number of accomplishments including a new recording contract and the appointment of nine musicians, four of whom were principals. In addition, Eschenbach has received praise for his work in fund-raising for the orchestra.
Following the announcement and Dobrin's ''Inquirer'' article, The Philadelphia Orchestra Association posted a letter on its website, dated 27 October 2006, which also was sent by e-mail to orchestra patrons. A quote from this letter condemned Dobrin's criticism:
"We, and many in the community, feel that in recent press coverage there have been personal attacks on Maestro Eschenbach, along with negative innuendo about his relationship with The Philadelphia Orchestra. ...These types of comments about Maestro Eschenbach and our orchestra are ridiculous, offensive and defamatory. Our entire orchestra family is profoundly disappointed when reporters report the news in such an ungracious way."
Dobrin, in turn, responded in a 29 October 2006 ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' article by quoting one of his 2001 ''Inquirer'' articles around the time of the Eschenbach announcement:
"....let me quote from something I wrote in March 2001 that might be an important reminder about how we got to this dangerous place: ''It hit many musicians like the dull thud of pragmatism, this decision in January to hire Eschenbach as the orchestra's seventh music director, starting in September 2003. At a meeting announcing the decision, players responded with silence. No applause, no excited stamping of feet. Silence. And then the resentment poured forth.One musician used the word "underwhelmed." Another said he felt "betrayed."...''
This contrasts with earlier reports of how the musicians "had input" in the choice of the previous Philadelphia music director, Wolfgang Sawallisch. In addition, the new orchestra president (as of 2006), James Undercofler, had spoken with orchestra musicians, and had told Eschenbach this summary of his discussions with them:
"-that 80 percent of the musicians did not agree with his artistic interpretations; -that 80 percent of the musicians left concerts feeling great anger; -and that the orchestra was a "ticking time bomb."
In an article by Cragg Hines in the newspaper ''The Washingtonian'' on December 1, 2009 Eschenbach was quoted:
"They said there was a survey of the whole orchestra and more than 80 percent of the orchestra was against me. I asked the management 'was that true?' and was told, ‘Yes, it's true.' It was not true at all. As I found out a little later, this survey never happened [...] All of the musicians regretted very, very much that [it] was reported like this."
In a 2007 article, Mark Swed of the ''Los Angeles Times'' has written about the Eschenbach/Philadelphia Orchestra situation:
"{Eschenbach} is one of the world's finest musicians and widely recognized as such. He has ideas. He has sophisticated tastes. He is cosmopolitan. He is an exciting interpreter. Colleagues speak of him warmly, and he is a favorite accompanist for singers.....So what's wrong? Just about everything. It is well known that the orchestra opposed the hiring of Eschenbach. He hadn't conducted in Philadelphia for five years when the appointment was made, and a memo was leaked to the press with 75 players' signatures asking management to hold off any decision until the orchestra got a chance to work with him. From the beginning, the relationship started off on the wrong foot...But the Philadelphia orchestra has not been exactly transformed by Eschenbach. I've been hearing reports of players looking bored onstage. Audiences walk out during performances. Even two years ago, at my last visit to Verizon Hall, the atmosphere was palpably unpleasant."
In a June 2007 article, Stearns reported Eschenbach as commenting on the Philadelphia Orchestra management as follows:
"The management in both cases [Paris and Philadelphia], I'm sorry to say, is amateurish"...."The management knows what I think ... it's not a secret".
In a July 2007 article, Dobrin emphasized that the problems in the Eschenbach/Philadelphia Orchestra relationship were not related to personality, but rather to musical quality:
"While many refuse to believe it, the factor that has undermined Christoph Eschenbach's tenure is not personality. He's a lovely guy; he and the players have a cordial off-stage relationship. The problem is the music. If 80 percent of the musicians leave concerts angry - as Eschenbach told players that president James Undercofler had told him - that's corrosive to the music and the institution."
In August 2007, the orchestra announced extended guest-conducting periods for Eschenbach with the ensemble in the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons, after the scheduled conclusion of his tenure as music director.
"The members of The Philadelphia Orchestra played as though their lives depended on it. The strings are both sturdy and responsively supple to Eschenbach's calculated spontaneity; their woodwind soloists, particularly the liquid-amber principal clarinet, are to die for."
"[In Hamburg, Eschenbach] was in what might be called Leopold Stokowski mode, drawing out climaxes with apparent spontaneity, sometimes reaching a nearly unbearable state of tension, and handling the tricky transitions with a daring that bordered on brinksmanship."
"The Philadelphia Orchestra, under its Music Director, Christoph Eschenbach, commended itself completely unostentatiously as one of the leading orchestras not only of America, but of the world... One listens to this masterfully delicate playing in near amazement... They are masters of sound."
"Christoph Eschenbach's monumentally slick account of Beethoven's Fifth took the shock of the new out of the shock of the old...The sense of striving in the piece was nowhere. It sat smugly, contentedly, in a comfort zone of its own making.....{Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5} was rendered merely showy by Eschenbach's portentousness."
"Christoph Eschenbach....evinced a passion that was communicated through the orchestral playing as well. In Tchaikovsky's Fifth, there was a mellifluous continuity of thought....In Beethoven's Fifth, Eschenbach exercised similarly good judgment."
"Christoph Eschenbach...gave this over-familiar classic {Beethoven's Symphony No. 5} newly minted status in a reading that never overstepped the line between vehemence and exaggeration.....Tchaikovsky's Fifth followed: the playing reinforced the Philadelphia's reputation as a virtuoso ensemble, with a particularly fine exposition of the second movement's famous horn solo. But Eschenbach's interpretation was less secure, inconsistently maintaining the level of nervous energy needed to fire the symphony's momentum and motivate its grand rhetoric."
"The sound this orchestra makes is legendary...Whether the results are so convincing interpretatively is another matter. The articulation in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony was vigorous, if not downright oppressive....A predilection for idiosyncratic gestures became even more pronounced in Eschenbach's reading of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E minor.....Such idiosyncrasies are unexceptionable, even welcome, when well motivated and provoke reappraisal. Here they seemed perverse....Great sound. Shame about the rest."
Category:1940 births Category:German classical pianists Category:German conductors (music) Category:Living people Category:People from Wrocław Category:Texas classical music Category:Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Category:Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Category:Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg
de:Christoph Eschenbach es:Christoph Eschenbach fr:Christoph Eschenbach ko:크리스토프 에셴바흐 it:Christoph Eschenbach he:כריסטוף אשנבאך ja:クリストフ・エッシェンバッハ pt:Christoph Eschenbach ru:Эшенбах, Кристоф fi:Christoph Eschenbach sv:Christoph Eschenbach uk:Крістоф Ешенбах zh:克里斯托弗·埃申巴赫This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Deciding to pursue a career in music, Fung transferred in 2003 to the Colburn School in Los Angeles to study with John Perry. Fung was the first student of piano to be admitted to the Colburn Conservatory in its inaugural year; in May 2007, he became the first pianist to graduate from the Conservatory.
Major orchestras with which he has worked include the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and the Queensland Orchestra, among numerous others. Fung has also been invited to give recitals at the some of the world's most important music festivals including the Aspen Music Festival, and the 2006 Edinburgh International Festival Queen's Hall Recital Series, where Fung was described as being “prodigiously talented... and probably [doing] ten more impossible things daily before breakfast,” by Jonas Green in the Edinburgh Guide. His recitals at the Edinburgh International Festival were especially well-received.
In 2008, David became a top prizewinner of the 12th Arthur Rubinstein Piano Masters Competition in Tel Aviv, and was awarded the Prize for Best Classical Concerto, and Best Performance of Chamber Music.
Besides the piano, Fung also plays the harpsichord and violin and attended James Ruse Agricultural High School in Sydney.
In 2005, Fung recorded his American debut album with Yarlung Records, ''From Hubris to Humility'', which featured works by Liszt, Bach, and Ravel; his second album, ''Evening Conversations'', released in 2006 also by Yarlung, was devoted to pieces by Mozart, Chopin, Tan Dun, Rachmaninoff, Schumann, and Domenico Scarlatti, and was praised as “an overall favorite” of the 2007 piano albums reviewed by James Harrington in the American Record Guide.
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Henryk started piano and harmony training with his mother when he was 5, and at age 7 turned to the violin, receiving instruction from Maurice Frenkel. After studies with Carl Flesch in Berlin (1929-32), he went to Paris to continue his training with Jacques Thibaud at the Conservatory, graduating with a premier prix in 1937.
In 1946, he became a naturalized citizen of Mexico.
Szeryng subsequently focused on teaching before resuming his concert career in 1954. His debut in New York City brought him great acclaim, and he toured widely for the rest of his life. He died in Kassel on 3 March 1988.
"A cosmopolitan fluent in 7 languages, a humanitarian, and a violinist of extraordinary gifts, Szeryng became renowned as a musician's musician by combining a virtuoso technique with a probing discernment of the highest order."
Category:Mexican classical violinists Category:Polish classical violinists Category:Jewish classical musicians Category:Jewish violinists Category:Mexican Jews Category:Mexican people of Polish descent Category:Polish Jews Category:1918 births Category:1988 deaths Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Naturalized citizens of Mexico Category:Academics of the National Conservatory of Music of Mexico Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music
bg:Хенрик Шеринг ca:Henryk Szeryng da:Henryk Szeryng de:Henryk Szeryng es:Henryk Szeryng eo:Henryk Szeryng fr:Henryk Szeryng it:Henryk Szeryng he:הנריק שרינג nl:Henryk Szeryng ja:ヘンリク・シェリング no:Henryk Szeryng pl:Henryk Szeryng pt:Henryk Szeryng ro:Henryk Szeryng ru:Шеринг, Генрик simple:Henryk Szeryng sr:Хенрик Шеринг fi:Henryk Szeryng sv:Henryk Szeryng tr:Henryk Szeryng zh:亨利克·谢林This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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