Klarinet Archive - Posting 000190.txt from 2008/03

From: colin.touchin@-----.com
Subj: [kl] ravel v. mussorgsky
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 02:45:49 -0400

Frederik Prausnitz in his comprehensive conducting manual Score and
Podium has a fascinating section on the Ravel orchestration of Pictures
where he leads from the surprising observation that Ravel missed out the
5th Promenade through a thematic analysis of the original piano score to a
conclusion regarding the psychology of the composition: that the alcoholic
Mussorgsky is pursuing his own journey, with Hartmann (the artist of the
Pictures) as companion, in the country of the dead. The explanation
Prausnitz evolves to cover Ravel's omission of a whole (but short) section
of the original he was orchestrating is his way to his deeper understanding
of the work in order to conduct the Ravel version. It is odd that
commentators rarely notice there is anything "wrong" with Ravel's version -
missing out a passage which is essential, as Prausnitz convincingly
explains, for the key structure and balance of the whole piece is rather a
bold step for an orchestrator of such distinction. What would Dan say had
a follower of Mozart done something similar?! Colin Touchin.

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