The notes accompanying this Ravel release by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Sakari Oramo put forth various reasons for the album's existence. The album takes its title from Ravel's La Valse, the whirling, decadent waltz that concludes the program. Most of the textual matter discusses how the music on the album, with the exception of La Valse, originated as keyboard music but are here arranged for orchestra. There is a third thread, not mentioned in the notes but quite apparent: many of the pieces ...
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The notes accompanying this Ravel release by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Sakari Oramo put forth various reasons for the album's existence. The album takes its title from Ravel's La Valse, the whirling, decadent waltz that concludes the program. Most of the textual matter discusses how the music on the album, with the exception of La Valse, originated as keyboard music but are here arranged for orchestra. There is a third thread, not mentioned in the notes but quite apparent: many of the pieces are based on Baroque models, and La Valse is balanced by the opening Le Tombeau de Couperin. In these works, Oramo crafts crisp readings in which the orchestra is in top form, and in the graceful excerpts from Miroirs, it's positively ethereal. La Valse is a bit too crisp; it's true that Ravel denied the idea that he was trying to represent the death of the old European order, but the work nevertheless benefits from a bit of overheated Mahlerianism. Listeners' mileage may vary, and...
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