Classical Music | Music for Trio

Recorded on 03/02/2016, uploaded on 12/07/2016

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Ravel's Piano Trio was composed mainly during the summer of 1914 in the seaside town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a favorite vacation spot of the composer in the Basque region.  In June 1914, Ravel wrote: “It's at least 95 degrees here, and for relief I'm working on the trio...despite numerous diversions: Basque pelota [a popular ball game], local fireworks, toros de fuego [a festive activity involving a metal bull and fireworks], and other pyrotechnics.” Both of these elements found a place in the trio: the Basque traditions in the first movement and the fireworks in the last. Ravel himself said that the two themes of the first movement are based on the rhythm of a Basque zortzico, a dance or song in an irregular meter, here 8/8 divided into 5/8 + 3/8. The title of the second movement, Pantoum, refers to a poetic form of Malayan origin, popular among French symbolist poets, in which two contrasting ideas are developed simultaneously. The third movement, entitled Passacaille, alludes to the Baroque variation form, but whereas a Baroque passacaglia repeats the bass theme continuously with variations entering above, Ravel's variations are presented as “distortions or developments of this unique theme.” The darkness of the Passacaille is answered by the brightness of the Finale, which opens in a brilliant register and, in a possible evocation of the fireworks of St. Jean-de-Luz, the movement grows to two massive climaxes of an orchestral scope theretofore unprecedented in piano-trio writing. A master orchestrator, Ravel spares no expense, using trills, tremolos and glissandi in the strings as well as passagework and thick chords in the piano to create a satisfying finale to a most impressive work.                                      Notes by Liza Stepanova

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.