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Track(s) taken from APR7504

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Ricardo Viñes premiered the Pavane pour une infante défunte on 5 April 1902, by which time Ravel was coming to general notice as a promising talent. The Pavane is probably the earliest of his pieces that ‘everybody knows’. But its success was always a little galling for Ravel, as he came to recognize its shortcomings and (again) its dependence on Chabrier. He was also irritated by pianists who played it too slowly, prompting him on one occasion to remark that it was the princess that was defunct, not the pavane. On the other hand, ‘one mustn’t turn it into a drama’. The answer perhaps lies in his suggestion that ‘at the same time as making the accompaniment secondary to the tune, you must insist on the latter’s slightly mechanical aspect’. Not for the last time, a Ravel piece turns out to be aesthetically more complex than it seems.

from notes by Roger Nichols © 2011

Recording details: January 1928
Columbia Records America, USA
Release date: February 2013
Total duration: 5 minutes 52 seconds

Pavane pour une infante défunte
composer
1899; first performed by Ricardo Viñes on 5 April 1902
Pavane pour une infante défunte  [5'52]  recorded 19 January 1928
Other recordings available for download
Angela Hewitt (piano)
Steven Osborne (piano)

Other albums featuring this work
'Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Music' (CDA67341/2)
'Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Music' (CDA67731/2)
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