Le Tombeau de Couperin

[Ian]

this is one of my favorite pieces of music right now. tombeau refers to a musical piece written as a memorial. couperin refers to a french baroque style of music.

maurice ravel first composed it as a suite for piano, in six movements. each movement was a tribute to friends who had died in service during the first world war:

prélude: dedicated to jacques charlot
fugue: dedicated to jean cruppi
forlane: dedicated to gabriel deluc
rigaudon: dedicated to pierre and pascal gaudin
menuet: dedicated to jean dreyfus
toccata: dedicated to joseph de marliave

ravel later orchestrated four of the movements (prélude, forlane, menuet, rigaudon) for two flutes (piccolo), two oboes (english horn), two clarinets, two bassoons, two french horns, trumpet, harp and strings.

this is a masterful oboe performance by albrecht mayer. the video has endless replay value to me and i never seem to tire of it (angela can attest).


Link

[Tuly]

Impressive choice Ian. Great recording with Pierre Boulez conducting who died early this year. I remember our friend Marc Park writing a term paper about him when I was studying music at BYU. Boulez was at the cutting edge of music around that time. It is great listening music, I just heard it twice.

[Steve]

Just passed the halfway point and am enjoying it! Thank you. Lily recalls hearing this piece, perhaps even a live performance?

It's funny timing—I just discovered Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte on Radio Swiss Classical a week or two ago and have been expressing to Lily my admiration for his music.

[Angela]

EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT.

Not complaining, however. Man, that albrecht mayer can play.

Steve, I watched/listened to this

Link

I really enjoyed watching the oboist use circular breathing. It's fascinating to watch! Also, I love to listen to Ravel.