Galimir Ravel

The Galimirs belonged to the Sephardic Jewish community, which had prospered for a millennium in the Iberian peninsula – until 1492, when expulsion from reunified Spain forced their resettlement around the Mediterranean. Reaching Vienna by the 18th century, they flourished under Emperor Franz-Joseph’s 1867 Constitution, guaranteeing freedoms throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

By 1983 MoFi had grown into a company with over 25 employees and grossing over $8 million annually. Then they nearly lost it all. The new darling on the scene was the compact disc. Because MoFi had been putting something on the order of 20% of their earnings back into research, they were prepared for the next wave. In the mid ‘80s, they launched their assault on the CD market with their half-speed
wares.

Their first efforts were released on aluminum discs, very much like all other discs at the time. And, in fact, some of these have become quite rare. Recently copies of them regularily go for >$75 on e-Bay. Partly, in an effort to justify the higher price they needed to charge, MoFi began to release their works on gold-plated compact discs called UltraDiscs. Although gold in and of itself isn’t significantly better than aluminum for the reproduction of ones and zeros, it oxidizes roughly ten times more slowly than aluminum. It is also supposed to coat more evenly than aluminum. This last attribute is said to cut down on the pin-holing so common to aluminum CDs, which allows for less error-correction during playback. This means more of the actual recording and less processor interpolation gets to your ears. So there was some inherent advantage to the gold treatment.

Malcolm Martineau follows up his acclaimed complete song collections of Duparc, Poulenc and Faure with a double album celebrating the complete songs of Maurice Ravel, performed by a bumper roster of singers: Lorna Anderson, Julie Boulianne, John Chest, Sarah Dufresne Dafydd Jones, Simon Keenlyside, Paula Murrihy, Nicky Spence and William Thomas.

Malcolm Martineau follows up his acclaimed complete song collections of Duparc, Poulenc and Faure with a double album celebrating the complete songs of Maurice Ravel, performed by a bumper roster of singers: Lorna Anderson, Julie Boulianne, John Chest, Sarah Dufresne Dafydd Jones, Simon Keenlyside, Paula Murrihy, Nicky Spence and William Thomas. French composer Maurice Ravel known for his musical craftsmanship and clear style drew on elements of baroque, neoclassicism, modernism and later on, jazz in his compositions. His vocal works span 4 decades, from 1893 to 1933.

Born in 1875, Ravel was fêted during the 1920s and ’30s as France’s greatest living composer – a remarkable achievement considering the obstacles placed in his path by the ultra-conservative Parisian musical elite of his time. (Ravel was expelled from the Paris Conservatoire twice!). His unique musical style, combining classical form and impressionistic harmony, makes his work immediately recognisable.

Continuing their exploration of Ravel’s output, François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles offer us two works linked by his love of Spain. Alongside the famous Bolero, which regains its original flavour here on period instruments, is Ravel’s first opera, which flirted with libertinism: though its outstanding cast consists entirely of native French-speakers, this caustic ‘Hour’ remains quintessentially Spanish!

Robert Trevino's first album together the Basque National Orchestra featuring orchestral works by the great French-Basque composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) received an excellent response. The program in this second volume is perhaps more 'French' in nature, but the Basque orchestra is giving dazzling performances of these works by their own national composer. While the first album was focused on some of Ravel's most popular orchestral works, this album includes some rarities, including Ma mère l'Oye (Mother Goose) in it's complete ballet version, as well as one world premiere recording: Pierre Boulez's orchestration of Ravel's World War I era piano work, Frontispice.