94743 ravel melodies bl2 v5 by Klassiek.nl

94743 Ravel Melodies_BL2 v5.qxp_. 04/12/2014 16:30 Page 2

Maurice Ravel 1875–1937 Complete Mélodies Compact Disc 1 1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8

Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer* (c.1893) Text: Roland de Marès (1874–1955) Un grand sommeil noir§ (1895) Text: Paul Verlaine (1844–1896) Sainte* (1896) Text: Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898) Chanson du rouet† (1898) Text: C.M.R. Leconte de Lisle (1818–1894) Si morne !‡ (1898) Text: Émile Verhaeren (1855–1916) Deux Épigrammes de Clément Marot‡ (1895–9) Text: Clément Marot (1496–1544) D’Anne qui me jecta de la neige D’Anne jouant de l’espinette Manteau de fleurs* (1903) Text: Paul Gravollet (1863–1936)

Shéhérazade‡ version for voice & piano (1903) Text: Tristan Klingsor (1874–1966) 9 Asie 10 La Flûte enchantée¶ 11 L’Indifférent

78’26 4’24 4’16 2’12

12 13 14 15 16

Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques* (1904–6) trans. Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi (1877–1944) Chanson de la mariée Là-bas, vers l’église Quel galant m’est comparable Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques Tout gai!

17 Noël des jouets‡ (1905) Text: Ravel 18 Les Grands Vents venus d’outremer§ (1906) Text: Henri de Régnier (1864–1936)

1’34 1’26 0’54 2’46 0’57 3’14 2’21

4’54 4’43

2’53 1’50

19 20 21 22 23

Compact Disc 2

3’48 1 2 10’22 3’07 3’54

Histoires naturelles† (1906) Text: Jules Renard (1864–1910) Le Paon Le Grillon Le Cygne Le Martin-pêcheur La Pintade

Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera† (1907) Sur l’herbe§ (1907) Text: Verlaine Tripatos* (1909) trans. Calvocoressi

4’50 3’30 3’18 2’57 3’31

71’14 3’10 2’24 1’37

94743 Ravel Melodies_BL2 v5.qxp_. 04/12/2014 16:30 Page 4

4 5 6 7 8

Chants populaires (1910) Chanson espagnole† Chanson française* Chanson italienne§ Chanson hébraïque§ Chanson écossaise‡ Text: Robert Burns (1759–1796)

21 Rêves* (1927) Text: Léon-Paul Fargue (1876–1947) Don Quichotte à Dulcinée§ (1932–3) Text: Paul Morand (1888–1976) 22 Chanson romanesque 23 Chanson épique 24 Chanson à boire

Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé‡ original version for ensemble (1913) 9 Soupir 10 Placet futile 11 Surgi de la croupe et du bond

4’17 4’00 2’59

*Monica Piccinini soprano †Elisabetta Lombardi mezzo-soprano ‡Sophie Marilley mezzo-soprano §Christian Immler baritone

Deux Mélodies hébraïques§ (1914) 12 Kaddisch 13 L’Énigme éternelle

4’34 1’51

Filippo Farinelli piano

Trois Chansons* version for voice and piano (1914–15) Text: Ravel 14 Nicolette 15 Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis 16 Ronde 17 Ronsard à son âme§ (1923–4) Text: Pierre de Ronsard (1524–1585) Chansons madécasses†¶|| original version for quartet (1925–6) Text: Évariste Desiré de Forges, vicomte de Parny (1753–1814) 18 Nahandove 19 Aoua ! 20 Il est doux

2’31 2’08 1’13 4’47 2’50

1’24

2’17 3’08 2’00

¶Claudia Giottoli flute ||Giacomo Menna cello 2’01 2’44 1’52 2’44

**Ensemble Contemporaneo dell’Umbria / Marco Momi conductor Claudia Giottoli flute & piccolo · Jona Venturi flute Simone Simonelli clarinet · Nicola Pontani clarinet & bass clarinet Filippo Farinelli piano Ascanio String Quartet: Damiano Babbini, Laurence Cocchiara violin Costanza Pepini viola Catherine Bruni cello

5’42 4’13 3’57

94743 Ravel Melodies_BL2 v5.qxp_. 04/12/2014 16:30 Page 6

Maurice Ravel: Complete Mélodies ‘What is sometimes referred to as my insensitivity is simply a scruple about not writing just anything’ Memories of a Lazy Child, Maurice Ravel Ravel’s Mélodies span a period of almost 40 years (1893–1932) and reveal the composer’s remarkable skill in achieving a degree of perfection in a relatively short time. Like his teacher Fauré before him, Ravel was able to voice his own personality with apparent ease. While his oeuvre reveals the various developments of French literature post-1890, with the influence of Emmanuel Chabrier, Eric Satie and the Russians, as well as a touch of typically fin-de-siècle languor, such fashions did not leave much of a mark. Likewise his later return to Couperin, along with his interest in jazz, Stravinsky and polytonality, never amounted to a real capitulation. No single influence won him over entirely. While new styles certainly stimulated his curiosity, it was more of a technical phenomenon than a matter of inner sensitivity, such that the way he composed underwent change, but not his personal idiom. To judge by the many photographs that have come down to us, Ravel would seem to have been a man of great expressiveness, yet his compositions do not share the extremely heightened sensibility typical of Debussy. He was not easily influenced, had a supremely fine ear, and a boundless appetite for what was latent, precious, rare; for experimenting with harmonic sensitivity, but not with the mental quality of sensation. Unlike Debussy, Ravel remained somehow unfathomable, as though the supercilious masks of turn-of-the-century culture had little to do with him, despite his susceptibility to symbolist, impressionist and cubist painting and poetry, to the Russian ballets, to Mallarmé, Henri de Régnier and Fargue. From the outset Ravel’s music was lucid and highly self-aware. In an interview in 1931 he declared that ‘the entire pleasure of existence consists in the untiring pursuit of perfection, in the urge to communicate the secret thrill of life’. The ‘pleasure of existence’ clearly pertains to the dandy in Ravel; however, it is also an expression that speaks for what he held to be the meaning of life. Indeed, the ceaseless search for perfection revealed by the words ‘the secret thrill of life’

transcends the aesthetic dimension to embrace the sphere of ethics: the desire to give voice to the inner soul of things. Until 1905, Ravel’s taste for decadent, medieval-style symbolist modes led him to compose in a manner that was highly controlled in its archaism: the Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer (c.1893), which reveals the influence of Satie; the hieratic Sainte, based on a poem by Mallarmé, with its procession of impassive chords that conjure up a dreamlike atmosphere (1896); the unsettlingly static and exceptionally chromatic development of Un grand sommeil noir (1895) on words by Verlaine; the perpetual, timeless movement of the Chanson du rouet (1898); the anguished vocal line of Si morne ! (1898); the elegant miniatures of the Deux Épigrammes de Clément Marot (1895–9) that respectively evoke the ostentation of a Renaissance court and the Prélude to the solo piano suite Tombeau de Couperin, replete with the frail sounds of the spinet; or indeed the brilliant and distinctly fin-de-siècle piece Manteau de fleurs (1903). Such works form the background for the ingenious triptych Shéhérazade (1903), a sort of symphonic poem for voice and orchestra, or voice and piano. Tristan Klingsor, who wrote the texts, recalled the encounter between his words and Ravel’s music in the following terms: I had just collected together the poems that make up Shéhérazade when Ravel decided to embellish certain of them with his music. His selection was somewhat surprising. He was not attracted by the poems whose intrinsic lyricism would have made them easy to translate into music; instead he focused on those that were more descriptive, some of which did not seem well suited to being set to music: Asie, for example, with its extended sentence development. The fact was that for Ravel, setting words to music meant transforming a poem into a recitative full of expression, bringing out the inflections in the words to create song and giving free rein to all their potential, but without trying to overpower them. Asie, the first of the three poems, is much longer than the other two, with a structure that comprises various episodes positioned between a prelude and a return to the exposition. La Flûte enchantée is a charming serenade in which Ravel gives free rein to the instrument of the

94743 Ravel Melodies_BL2 v5.qxp_. 04/12/2014 16:30 Page 8

god Pan, with the syrinx whose birth is described by Daphnis, the flute of Bilitis and all the other creatures typical of symbolist spleen (the 19th-century concept borne of a reaction to the ‘ideal’, symbolising all the ill spirits and malevolence within human nature). The version of the piece chosen for this recording is particularly interesting, in that Ravel wrote it for a trio consisting of voice, flute and piano. L’Indifférent concludes the composition in a distinctly voluptuous, sensual vein. Entirely different is the staid Noël des jouets (1905), for which Ravel also wrote the words, and the impressionist seascape of Les Grands Vents venus d’outremer (1906). 1906 was also the year of the Histoires naturelles (on texts by Jules Renard, the author of Poil de carotte), in which Ravel presents a musical flock of winged creatures with all due attention to realistic detail, thereby underlining difference and discontinuity with subtle humour. In the pages of his journal, Renard describes the young composer who had just paid him a visit: Monsieur Ravel, the dark, wealthy and refined composer who set Histoires naturelles to music, insists on me going to hear his melodies this evening. I tell him that I know nothing about music and ask him what he hoped to add to the Histoires naturelles. ‘My aim was not to add anything but to interpret’. But in relation to what? ‘To say in music what you say in words when you find yourself in front of a tree, for example. I think and feel in music and would like to think and feel the same things that you feel and think.’ The use of a prosody that closely resembles everyday language, together with the flattened intonation of recitative, implied a distinct restriction of the lyrical nature of song. While the prosodic quality of the voice was emphasised, the literary images were entirely entrusted to the piano part. The pompous wedding march of Le Paon with its drawn-out, preening pauses is distinctly reminiscent of an 18th-century French overture in rhythm, while the toccata-like Le Grillon conjures up a sense of sublime simplicity and mystery. Redolent of Chopin, Le Cygne, or ‘Swan’, a creature dear to musical iconography, is imbued with feelings that are suddenly curtailed by an expression of irony. Le Martin-pêcheur features harmonic relationships

that are complex and sophisticated, conjuring up curiously suspended expectations. Lastly Le Pintade, with its harpsichord-like evocation of naturalism and the taste of the 1700s, relies for witty effect on the contrasting interplay of voice and piano; little wonder that the premiere performance of the work aroused such a major scandal. Composed in 1907 on verse by Verlaine, Sur l’herbe is a collage of refined and highly erudite elements, amorous proposals and affectations that harks back to the elegance of the 18th century. That same year Ravel also finished the Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera, a nostalgic, obsessive Andalusian song with an evident didactic aim that saw the light of day just before L’Heure espagnole and Rapsodie espagnole. The composer’s imaginary journey continued with arrangements or imitations of folk songs, in keeping with the interest in ethnomusicology that was a feature of his times: Chants populaires (1910), the lovely Deux Mélodies hébraïques (1914), the Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques (1904–6), along with Tripatos (1909), which the composer gave in manuscript form to the singer Marguerite Babaïan and which consisted of arrangements of melodies recorded on the island of Chios, at the behest of the musicologist Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi. The Trois Chansons for mixed unaccompanied chorus were completed in 1915 and have been included in this recording because Ravel himself produced a version for voice and piano that was published in 1916. All three songs are settings of texts by Ravel: Nicolette, a subject followed by three variations; the joyful Ronde; and the impassioned Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis, a magnificent ballad whose elusive harmonies, simple linearity and transparency contrast with the somewhat showy repetitiveness of the Ronde and herald the terse perfection of L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. The Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé were composed in 1913 and are respectively dedicated to Stravinsky, Florent Schmitt and Satie. Although the collection was inspired by Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, which Stravinsky had introduced to Ravel, the work bore no direct influence over Ravel’s composition. Indeed, Ravel’s awareness of transitions towards new musical forms brought about doubts of his own regarding a traditional musical idiom that was beginning to show signs of fatigue. Clearly he was prepared to exasperate both musical and literary hermeticism: not only by setting verse by Mallarmé to music, but also by making

94743 Ravel Melodies_BL2 v5.qxp_. 04/12/2014 16:30 Page 10

considerable use of tension in harmony and timbre, substantially eliminating melody (in keeping with the prosody already pursued in the Histoires naturelles) and opting for an ensemble made up of nine instruments. In this way the composer wove together and accentuated the various musical languages that he had hitherto employed in his works. Following a considerable lapse of time (during which he composed masterpieces such as L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, La Valse and Boléro), Ravel returned to the perfect miniature with Ronsard à son âme (1923–4), Rêves (1927) and in particular the three Chansons madécasses (1925–6) for voice, flute, cello and piano (an ensemble that derives from the quartet, in which the voice is entrusted with the main part). With the Chansons madécasses, Ravel transcended the exasperation of the cycle on texts by Mallarmé by choosing to set to music verse by Parny that was erotic, epic and sensuous. In so doing, he was able to return to the dramatic potential of the voice, pursuing subjects and revealing timbres that invest the collection with great lyricism. Nahandove is a love nocturne, whereas Aoua ! is a wild, dissonant, raucous cry underpinned by a disquieting, threatening rhythm. The cycle ends with Il est doux, a gentle nocturne in which the sounds of war give way to a restful peace, the calm of eventide and simple everyday activities. Lastly there is the collection Don Quichotte à Dulcinée (1932–3), three lyrics on texts by Paul Morand that were commissioned by a film producer to be sung by the famous bass Feodor Chaliapin in a film about Don Quixote. Ravel was offered the job in the spring of 1932, when he was already exhausted by overwork, insomnia and the after-effects of a car accident. While he had welcomed the arrival of cinema enthusiastically, it may be that Ravel accepted this particular commission as a way of keeping at bay the obsessive idea of death by hiding behind his professional engagements. Each of the three songs is based on a dance step: with its seductive 6/8 and 3/4 rhythms, the Chanson romanesque reflects the guajira, and is a synthesis of the habaneras and the alboradas of many years earlier; the Chanson épique is built on the zortziko, a slow Basque dance, and features the concentration and vibrant invocation typical of prayer; lastly the Chanson à boire, which mirrors the Aragonese jota, once again conjures up the demon of dance encountered in many of the composer’s earlier scores. In the end, Ravel’s Don Quichotte score never actually became a soundtrack, and the film was released in 1934 with four songs written by Ibert instead.

This brings us to the end of exploration of Maurice Ravel’s chamber mélodies. In wishing listeners all due enjoyment, I would like to quote the words that Alexis Roland-Manuel noted down at the end of the interview that was to become Une esquisse autobiographique de Maurice Ravel, published in 1938 in La Revue Musicale: I have never felt the need to formulate, for myself or anyone else, the principles of my aesthetics. If I ever had to, I would ask to be allowed to adopt the simple declarations made on this subject by Mozart. He unaffectedly declared that music can take any path, can dare to describe anything, as long as it still enchants and remains music, through and through and forever. 훿 Elisabetta Lombardi Translation: Kate Singleton

94743 Ravel Melodies_BL2 v5.qxp_. 04/12/2014 16:30 Page 12

Soprano Monica Piccinini was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Following initial studies on the violin, she turned to opera singing and studied under Franca Mattiucci and Elena Kriatchko, obtaining her degree with honours. She perfected her vocal technique with masterclasses in Baroque repertoire with Rossana Bertini, and in Lied and vocal music of the 1900s under Erik Werba and Dorothy Dorow. Her onstage debut saw her playing the parts of Musica and Euridice in a production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the Teatro Real in Madrid under Jordi Savall. This was followed by numerous other roles, including Morgana in Handel’s Alcina at the Opéra Royal in Versailles under Christophe Rousset, Bellezza in Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Valletto-Fortuna in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Teatro Colon in Salamanca under Rinaldo Alessandrini, Amore in La virtù degli strali d’Amore by Cavalli at the Teatro Malibran in Venice under Fabio Biondi, Claudia in Scarlatti’s Massimo Puppieno at the Teatro Politeama in Palermo under Fabio Biondi, Argene in L’Olimpiade by Pergolesi at the Juliusz Słowack Theatre in Kraków under Ottavio Dantone, Minerva/Fortuna/ Melanto in Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria by Monteverdi under Rinaldo Alessandrini, Clori in Handel’s Clori, Dorino e Amore with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester in Munich, and Vagaus in Vivaldi’s Juditha triumphans under Ottavio Dantone. Additionally, she has an established reputation as a sacred music singer, having performed in Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Boccherini’s Stabat mater, Haydn’s Missa in angustiis, J.S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio, Magnificat and Mass in B minor, Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Vivaldi’s Magnificat, and various music by Hasse and Caldara. She collaborates regularly with major ensembles and orchestras, including Les Talents Lyriques, Concerto Italiano, Europa Galante, Accademia Bizantina, La Venexiana, Al Ayre Español, Concerto Romano, Concerto Palatino, El Concierto Español, the Chamber Orchestra of

Lausanne, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Orquestra Barroca de la Universidad de Salamanca, Hespèrion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya. Future projects include a opera performance as Damigella in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 2015, performing under Rinaldo Alessandrini and director Robert Wilson. Elisabetta Lombardi studied singing in Pesaro and Turin (Italy), where she completed her degree with the highest honours. She continued her studies in Germany and Austria, taking part in masterclasses with Graham Johnson, Hartmut Höll, Judith Beckmann and Irwin Gage, among others. She received second prize at the Concorso nazionale di musica vocale da camera di Conegliano (Italy) and is a past winner of the Gli strumenti e il novecento competition (Italy). Following her debut at the Teatro Regio in Turin as Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, she went on to sing in various Italian and German opera houses, performing a wide range of repertoire, from Baroque to contemporary. She has also dedicated herself to Lied and oratorio repertoire. Elisabetta has performed in numerous concerts and festivals including the Ravenna Festival, the Sagra Musicale Umbra in Perugia, the MITO SettembreMusica in Turin, the Festival pianistico internazionale in Bergamo and Brescia, the Viterbo Baroque Festival, the Settimane musicali of Bologna, the concert seasons of Accademia di Spagna (Rome), Sala Scarlatti (Naples), the Berlin Philharmonic and the Philharmonie im Gasteig (Munich), and the Tiroler Festspiele, the Reykjavík Arts Festival and the Beijing Music Festival. Several of her productions have been recorded on CD, among them Il mondo alla roversa by Galuppi, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Cantus planus by Castiglioni for the ColLegno label, various Lieder by Kienzl for Chandos, and for the Fondazione Pergolesi-Spontini two CDs of Pergolesi’s sacred music. Elisabetta currently teaches vocal chamber music at the ‘G.B. Pergolesi’ Conservatoire in Fermo.

94743 Ravel Melodies_BL2 v5.qxp_. 04/12/2014 16:30 Page 14

Sophie Marilley was born in Fribourg (Switzerland). She studied singing at the conservatoire there and graduated in 1999 (class of Antoinette Faes). She attended masterclasses with Irwin Cage, Brigitte Fassbaender and Anthony Rolfe-Johnson, among others. In 2000–01 she worked at the Flanders Opera Studio, and in 2002 she was a prizewinner at the international Belvedere Competition in Vienna. Sophie began her career at the Fribourg Opera where she performed in La Périchole (title role) and L’Étoile (Lazuli). From 2001 to 2005 she was engaged as a soloist at the Osnabrück Opera in Germany, performing in Le nozze di Figaro (Cherubino), Così fan tutte (Dorabella), La Cenerentola (title role), La Périchole (title role), Die Fledermaus (Orlofsky) and Der Rosenkavalier (Octavian), among others. From 2006 to 2011 she was a soloist in the ensemble of the Wiener Staatsoper, performing roles such as Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Stéphano (Roméo et Juliette) and Nicklausse (Les Contes d’Hoffmann). She has also performed at the Flanders Opera (Clarice in The Love for Three Oranges, Mercédès in Carmen), Wexford Festival Opera (Laura in Die drei Pintos, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel), St Gallen Opera (title role in La Cenerentola), Graz Opera (Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Opéra de Lausanne (Dorabella in Così fan tutte), Angers Nantes Opéra (Lazuli in L’Étoile and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro), Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon (Sesto in La clemenza di Tito), and at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels (Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and, recently, the Prince in Cendrillon). Since 2011 she has been a soloist in the ensemble of the Staatsoper Stuttgart, performing roles such as Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Junon (Platée), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) and the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos.

German baritone Christian Immler studied with Rudolf Piernay and won the International Voice-Piano Competition ‘Nadia et Lili Boulanger’ in 2001. He has worked with conductors such as Marc Minkowski, Ivor Bolton, Ottavio Dantone, Philippe Herreweghe, William Christie, Daniel Harding, Giovanni Antonini and Masaaki Suzuki, performing at renowned venues such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Salzburg Festival, and London’s Wigmore Hall and Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms). On stage, he recently appeared at the Grand Théâtre in Geneva and the Opéra Comique in Paris. His CD recordings have been awarded the Diapason d’Or and the Diapason Découverte. Christian is currently Professor of Voice at the Lausanne/ Fribourg Conservatoire. www.christianimmler.com

Italian pianist Filippo Farinelli studied with Dalton Baldwin, Irwin Gage and Charles Spencer, and has won several international chamber music competitions. He has worked with performers such as Mark Milhofer, Mario Caroli, David Brutti and Melissa Phelps, taking part in festivals such as the Sagra Musicale Umbra, Ljubljana Festival and MusicaRivaFestival. He has also recorded several CDs for Brilliant Classics and Tactus. Filippo is currently Professor of Chamber Music at the Conservatoire of Vibo Valentia (Italy). www.filippofarinelli.com

94743 Ravel Melodies_BL2 v5.qxp_. 04/12/2014 16:30 Page 16

Claudia Giottoli is a flautist and Professor of Flute at the ‘F. Morlacchi’ Conservatoire in Perugia. She has been awarded prizes in various national and international chamber music competitions and has performed both in Italy and other European countries, collaborating with musicians such as Antonio Ballista, Alide Maria Salvetta, Ciro Scarponi, the Soloists of New York University and the Fires of London. She has taken part in various premieres of contemporary Italian music, including that of Francesco Pennisi, Aurelio Samorì, Giorgio Ferrari, Francesco La Licata, Fernando Sulpizi, Tonino Battista, Giuseppe Garbarino, Fabrizio De Rossi Re and Carlo Galante. Claudia is currently principal flautist of the I Solisti di Perugia chamber orchestra, and she has worked with several other Italian orchestras, including the Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Umbria and the Orchestra da Camera di Mantova. In addition to recordings for the labels Stradivarius, Bongiovanni, Camerata Tokyo, Edipan, Ricordi and Quadrivium, she has held masterclasses in Dublin (Royal Irish Academy of Music) and Salzburg (Mozarteum), and every year holds summer courses at the Incontro Internazionale per Giovani Musicisti in Piediluco.

The Ensemble Contemporaneo dell’Umbria comprises a group of young musicians brought together through friendship and common experiences of life in Umbria. Founded in 2011 by Marco Momi, the ensemble aims to harness the passion for contemporary music found in Italy, particularly with groups and soloists working together in Umbria. The members share common paths; many have studied abroad (examples include conservatoires and universities of Bordeaux, Strasbourg, The Hague, Fribourg, London and Vienna); many have had a hand in international productions (Teatro alla Scala (Milan), Warsaw Autumn, Muziekgebouw (Amsterdam), ZKM Karlsruhe, Royal Albert Hall (London), Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome), Musikverein Wien, Konzerthaus Wien and Bang on a Can (New York), among others); several have already recorded on well-known labels (Brilliant Classics, Stradivarius and Tactus), and between them they have won prizes in more than 50 competitions around the world, such as Busoni, Van Cliburn, Queen Elizabeth, Darmstadt, Gaudeamus and Landsberg.

Giacomo Menna studied with Vito Vallini, Mario Brunello, Enrico Bronzi and László Fenyo˝. Co-principal cellist at the Staatstheater Karlsruhe, he has also played with the renowned hr-Sinfonieorchester. Giacomo is a member of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

94743 Ravel Melodies_BL2 v5.qxp_. 04/12/2014 16:30 Page 18

Ensemble Contemporaneo dell’Umbria’s founder and conductor Marco Momi (born in 1978) studied piano, orchestral conducting and composition in Perugia, Strasbourg, The Hague, Rome, Darmstadt and Paris. His composition teachers included Fabio Cifariello Ciardi and Ivan Fedele, and he studied conducting with Ennio Nicotra. From 2007 to 2010 he studied and worked at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in Paris. His compositions have met with much success in several international competitions, winning such prizes as the Gaudeamus Prize, Seoul International Competition, Impuls – Klangforum Wien and the Reading Panel IRCAM-EIC. In 2008 he received the Kranichstein Music Prize from the city of Darmstadt, and he has been nominated to compete for the Prix Prince Pierre de Monaco three times. Marco was composer-in-residence at the Akademie der Künste Berlin (2010–11) and in Turin at the Fondazione Banna Spinola (2012); in 2013 he was composer-in-residence with the Divertimento Ensemble in Milan. His music has been performed by various groups and artists, including Ensemble intercontemporain, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Ensemble Accroche Note, Ensemble Modern Academie, Ensemble Nikel, ASKO Ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Ensemble l’Itinéraire, Slagwerk Den Haag, Alter Ego, Taller Sonoro, MDI, Algoritmo, Divertimento Ensemble, David Brutti, Marco Angius, Matteo Cesari, Bas Wiegers, Marino Formenti, Mario Caroli, Robert H.P. Platz, Andrea Pestalozza and others, in festivals such as Musica Strasbourg, Agora Paris, ManiFeste Paris, Warsaw Autumn, Culturscapes Basle, Music Today Seoul, Magister Ludi Moscow, IMD Darmstadt, Gaida Vilnius, Akademie der Künste Berlin, Bang on a Can, IRCAM, AudioArtCircus Osaka, New Directions Luleå, Tzlil Meudcan Tel Aviv, Gaudeamus Music Week and ZKM Karlsruhe. He has received commissions from institutions including the French State, Radio France, Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and ADK Berlin. His music is published by Nuova Stradivarius and since 2009 by Edizioni Suvini Zerboni. 18

Thanks to: Maria Chiara Verrigni, Dario Maughelli, Rino Casula, Adriana Cerasa.

Recordings: 1–3 March 2013 (CD1 1, 3, 4, 8, 12–16, 19–23; CD2 1, 3–5, 14–16, 18–21); 10–12 & 17–19 March 2014 (CD1 2, 5, 6, 7, 9–11, 17, 18; CD2 2, 6–13, 17, 22–24), Auditorium Federico Cesi, Acquasparta, Italy Recording, mixing & mastering: Luca Ricci (l.c.studiomobile@libero.it) Editing: Filippo Farinelli Piano: Schimmel Grand, model K230  & 훿 2015 Brilliant Classics