Pavane pour une Infante Défunte смотреть онлайн

Queen City Chamber Orchestra "Ghostly Mozart" October 27th 2019 at Philippus UCC. Shawn Charton conducting. Anthony Stanley, horn.

This antique miniature is not meant to pay tribute to any particular princess from history, but rather expresses a nostalgic enthusiasm for Spanish customs and sensibilities. The pavane was a slow processional dance that enjoyed great popularity in the courts of Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ravel described the piece as "an evocation of a pavane that a little princess [infanta] might, in former times, have danced at the Spanish court in a painting by Diego Velazquez.” This is a reference to the many dwarves who served in the Spanish court during the reign of Philip IV; many of whom were depicted by Velazquez.

Ravel dedicated the Pavane to his patron, the Princesse de Polignac, and he probably performed the work at the princess's home on several occasions. It attracted little attention until the Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes gave the first performance on April 5, 1902. The work soon became very popular, although Ravel came to think of it as "poor in form" and unduly influenced by the music of Chabrier.

When asked how he arrived at the title Pavane pour une infante défunte, Ravel smiled coyly and replied, "Do not be surprised, that title has nothing to do with the composition. I simply liked the sound of those words and I put them there, c'est tout". Ravel intended the piece to be played extremely slowly; however, the composer was not impressed by interpretations that plodded. After one performance Ravel mentioned to the pianist that the piece was called "Pavane for a dead princess", not "Dead pavane for a princess".

When Ravel published his orchestrated version of the Pavane in 1910, he gave the lead melody to the horn, and specified "2 Cors simples en sol" (two hand-horns in G). The teaching of the valveless hand-horn had persisted longer in the Paris Conservatory than in other European centers; by 1903 the valved horn had replaced it as the official horn of primary instruction.

Reorchestrated by Shawn Charton