Maurice Ravel: Sonatine For Piano (Great Performer's Edition)
Product Code: GS50061

This Sonatine, composed in 1905, has a classical form in the style of Haydn, blended with modern harmonisation. It is very different from the impressionist style of Debussy and is characterised by a delightful spontaneity. The first movement has a feeling of nostalgic freshness - a remembrance of his childhood. The second movement is a minuet, and is a return to late 18th-century elegance and structural quality, with music-box effects. The third movement starts like a toccata, with a virile theme and several sequential patters based on the chord of the minor ninth; the second theme is full of plaintive charm and brings a return of the initial theme. This contrast of vitality and tenderness is finished with a sparkling climax. This is a Great Performers Edition, with notes by Gaby Casadesus, wife of the great pianist Robert Casadesus.