Ravel - Nash Ensemble (2025)
My queued listen for today was a rec from The Quietus, I think, a publication that continues the tradition of music critics proving they are harder, smarter, edgier, and cooler than you. I find some things I like from them, but on this gorgeous, lazy winter morning I just didn’t have time for their bullshit.
Instead, I went with a recent collection of Maurice Ravel works by a premier chamber group, the Nash Ensemble.
The meat of the record is Ravel’s Piano Trio in A Minor and his String Quartet in F Major. Ravel was thoroughly rooted in the 19th century tradition of French music, but added his own more modern touches as well.
The piano trio was written in 1914. Ravel rushed it to completion so he could enlist to serve in the first World War as a medic and driver. It’s a tricky thing, I’d imagine, to balance two strings players against a piano that is liable to be much louder and more dynamic. It does a great job of this, keeping everyone in balance in both quieter and louder passages.
The quartet is from Ravel’s early years, written in 1904 before he’d established himself and before he’d gotten out from under his conservative critics. Tale as old as time, I suppose. Despite resistance from the old guard, he was quickly recognized as one of the most forward-thinking composers of his generation.
