Ravel was born in the town of Biarritz in the south of France. Although his was not a musical family, his earliest musical influences came from the Basque folk songs his mother sang to him. He started formal training at the age of seven through piano lessons. In 1889, Ravel visited the Universal Exposition where he heard works by the Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov. In the same year he met his life-long friend, pianist Ricardo Viñes, Ravel’s link to Spanish music. As a pianist, Ravel entered the Paris Conservatoire, but was unfortunately expelled. He later returned to the conservatoire to study composition with noted composer Gabriel Faure. In the late nineteenth century, Ravel met Claude Debussy and was intrigued by impressionism, as the two attended concerts and played each other’s works. In the 1920’s, Ravel performed a concert tour in America with great success. Tragedy struck in 1932 in a horrible taxi accident in which Ravel suffered a severe head injury. Plagued by resulting mental difficulties, he underwent experimental brain surgery in 1937 and died shortly thereafter.
Ravel’s music is distinctive in its use of modal melodies as opposed to serialism or major and minor scales. He also followed Debussy’s footsteps in applying chords extended from the basic triad including ninth and eleventh chords. While utilizing popular forms such as jazz in his Piano Concerto in G, Ravel maintained a classical sensibility, all the while having an individualistic compositional voice.
The Trio was begun in 1914 and Ravel finished the piece in hope of enlisting in the army with the onset of World War I. The work is in four movements and is extremely virtuosic. The first movement, marked Modéré, has the rhythmic styling of a Basque dance with the grouping of 3+2+3. The second movement, Pantoum, is a reference to a Malaysian verse form and is set in the form of ABA. The third movement is a Passacaglia, a popular Baroque form in which the movement contains a repeated bass line throughout. The last movement again relies on varied rhythmic patterns along with colorful string writing that contains arpeggios and harmonics.
The performance of the Ravel Trio is sponsored by Roy Prendergast in loving memory of his late wife, Jeananne Albee.
-- Kyle Blaha