Hyperion Records

Ravel's friend the composer and pianist Alfredo Casella had published a group of six pastiches in 1911 and was planning a second volume, to which he invited Ravel to contribute. The two subjects chosen by Ravel were among his favourite composers. The Chabrier one is a pastiche of Chabrier making a pastiche of Siebel’s aria ‘Faites-lui mes aveux’ from Gounod’s Faust. Chabrier’s typical cadences and textures (tunes played two octaves apart, upward arpeggio flourishes, a semitonally growling bass) are faithfully reproduced.

from notes by Roger Nichols © 2011