Barrett Reynolds...

>...just can't get into the music of Maurice Ravel.  I love the opening
>of Bolero, but by the end, the piece seems to be weighed down...

I gather that Maurice himself wouldn't commend you on this choice.  Besides,
while many extol his wild, colourful orchestrations, there's also lots of
less dressed-up music one shouldn't overlook.  For solo piano there's the
ever revisitable 'Le Tombeau du Couperin,' and the 'Sonatine,' for simple
human warmth.  In chamber music, the Sonata for Violin and Cello, for just
one.

Plenty of his works surpass the 'Bolero.' The Piano Concerto in G, say.  Aldo
Ciccolini with Martinon/Orchestre de Paris, still my favourite, has finally
been re-released on EMI (although for now in an unbroken mid-price set of 8
CDs that includes Debussy works).

>...which is surprising when you note that Ravel's idol was Mozart.

I don't see this as some kind of an a priori asset or virtue.  Should _I_
idolize Mozart, or even like him?  _Must_ you like Ravel?

>But when you put him next to the giants of twentieth century music, like
>Stravinsky or Prokofiev, he just seems a tad irrelevant.

Surely there's merit to the non-giants, isn't there?  Some favourite
composers of mine are among the less influential: Rozsa, Martin, Martinu,
Walton, etc.  I try to console myself about this by also deriving plenty of
enjoyment from the music of Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, etc.

I'm also not sure about the relevance of 'irrelevance' in this context.
His high level of refinement may seem to run against the very bloody, crude
and destructive 20th century, but much that's positive and civilizing has
also transpired in that time: amazing medical advances, including painless
dentistry; material well-being for masses of people in the west and, more
Recently, in the orient; our grasp of outer space; recorded music; etc.  Why
squeeze artists within any single view of the century?

>Still Listening,

Fine.  But why is Ravel a special need right now?  Why not wait until you're
better disposed?  Surely there are enough presumably good composers to keep
you busy.  Who knows if something in their works may illuminate just what
it is that so many regard as special about Ravel's music.

Bert Bailey