Born in Paris during the Belle Epoque, Jacques Ibert (1890?1962) entered in 1910 the Paris Conservatoire where his counterpoint and orchestration teacher Andre Gedalge (who had trained Ravel) influenced him greatly. It was also in Gedalge’s class that Ibert met Darius Milhaud (1892?1974) and Arthur Honegger (1892?1955): with Francis Poulenc (1899?1963) and three other composers, Milhaud and Honegger will soon form “Les Six (The Six) .” While this forward-thinking circle livened up Paris until the early 1920s, Ibert was mostly absent from the capital. During the First World War, he went to the front as a nurse first, before being sent to the French northern coast as a naval officer. Then immediately after the war, he won the Prix de Rome (a prestigious scholarship) in 1919 to stay in Rome from 1920 to 1923.
A product of this Italian sojourn, Escales ( Ports of Call ) (1922) was premiered in Paris by the Orchestre Lamoureux in 1924 to be highly praised. Inspired by the composer’s Mediterranean cruise, this vivid orchestral triptych sets sail from Rome for Sicily, first (I Rome ? Palermo ): muted violins and a flute commence a Debussyan waterscape, and a trumpet subsequently announces the lively Italian folk dance “tarantella”. II Tunis?Nefta reproduces an Arabic “desertscape” with the oboe’s snake-charmer-like meandering tune. III Valencia describes a festive scene of the Iberian port town with the rhythms of the Spanish folk dance “seguidilla” as well as castanets and guitar-inspired string effects.

[Kumiko Nishi]

Most piano works until the early 20th century attach more or less a smaller importance to the left hand than the right hand, unless they are for left hand exercises or some other utmost exceptional purpose. The fact that the French word “gauche” meaning “left” is also the synonym of “awkward” and “clumsy” wouldn’t come as a great surprise for many piano players and lovers.
Thus quite unexpected is Maurice Ravel(1875?1937)’s Le concerto pour la main gauche (1930) ? a piano concerto for the left hand “alone”. He composed it at the request of the pianist Paul Wittgenstein who lost his right arm in World War I. Although he also commissioned Korngold (1923), R. Strauss (1925) and Prokofiev (1931) to write a single-handed concerto, it was Ravel’s that Wittgenstein chose for his 1934 North American debut after premiering it in Europe in 1932.
This single-movement concerto consists of three slow-fast-slow sections. Over the low strings’ arpeggios, the gloomy contrabassoon solo and the horns’ undulation start the work. Shortly, the pianist enters playing a cadenza (without orchestra) which is usually placed toward the end: here Ravel’s highly elaborate writing already makes us believe the soloist uses two hands. The jazzy fast section in march rhythm is reminiscent of his 1928 American tour. The final slow section has the opening music return for a moment, followed by the soloist’s extended, expressive cadenza. The concerto closes all too soon recalling the fast section.

[Kumiko Nishi]

Born in a Paris suburb, Claude Debussy (1862?1918), a genuine early bloomer, was allowed to enroll in the Paris Conservatoire in 1872 at age 10. Later in 1884, he won the Prix de Rome to stay in the Eternal City like Ibert as mentioned above, although the older man, reportedly bored, wound up his sojourn sooner than scheduled. Revealed in 1894, Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune ( Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun ) brought Debussy into prominence and will be regarded a revolutionary turning point for music history.
Nocturnes (1899) was his first orchestral piece since Prelude . Following the 1901 premiere of the entire work by the Orchestre Lamoureux in Paris, Ravel made its piano reduction in 1909 to honor the composer thirteen years his senior.
The three movements of Nocturnes render a skyscape, a landscape and a seascape respectively. I Nuages ( Clouds ) describes “the slow and melancholic motion of clouds dying away in gray lightly tinged with white” according to Debussy, before II Fetes ( Festivals ) emits “a sudden burst of light”. III Sirenes ( Sirens ) represents “the sea and its ever-changing rhythm”, whilst the wordless women’s chorus gives “the mysterious song of sirens” among “moonlit silver waves” (sirens are mythological female sea creatures whose enchanting singing drive sailors to shipwreck). Debussy was to go on reworking Nocturnes until his latest years, primarily so that the human voices blend well with the instrumental sounds.

[Kumiko Nishi]