Ravel: Piano Trio, Violin Sonatas
Jean-Philippe Collard (piano), Augustin Dumay (violin), Frédéric Lodéon (cello) (Erato)
(scroll down for English review)
盧迪安（大提琴）華納錄音全集的一張，全拉威爾專輯，吸引我去聽的卻是全碟最後的《遺作小提琴奏鳴曲》（軌八）。我一直以為拉威爾小提琴奏鳴曲，就是得那一首（軌五至七），現在才知他在22歲（1897年）寫過一個奏鳴曲樂章，很可能是寫來給佛瑞參考，讓佛瑞收他做徒弟學作曲。但一如許多作曲家對待學生作品，拉威爾一直沒把它出版，要等到他死後約四十年，1975年他一百冥壽才被出版。
因為它而聽，但我覺得全碟都值得聽。《遺作小提琴奏鳴曲》一些元素，出現在《鋼琴三重奏》（軌一至四），包括運用了教會調性、以及特殊節奏的第一樂章主題旋律。這首樂曲從較古老的曲風、甚至是詩歌體裁得到靈感，卻滿載浪漫激情。
至於兩首小提琴奏鳴曲，我其實對《遺作》頗為滿意，較流行的那首，我覺得有點過譽，或多或少是因為第二樂章用怨曲（藍調）寫成，令此曲變成一個「古典融合爵士」的教科書例子。我口味覺得過譽，但兩首小提琴奏奏曲，再加上《鋼琴三重奏》，令我覺得拉威爾在室樂的領域上，較德布西有過之而無不及，三首樂曲都值得在音樂廳更多演奏。
This Ravel disc is an entry from French cellist Frédéric Lodéon’s Warner recordings box set but what brought me to it were the two violin sonatas played by Dumay and Collard. I’d always thought there’s just “the” Ravel violin sonata that is usually coupled with the Debussy sonata. But this early effort was the first movement of a projected violin sonata that the 22-year-old Ravel wrote in order to gain entry into Fauré’s composition class. This sonata-movement remained unpublished until the Ravel centenary in 1975, thus the title “posthumous sonata”.
Some elements of that sonata found their way into the Piano Trio (tracks 1-4) which opened this disc. There are those modal melodies, irregular rhythms and an archaic feeling morphing into romanticism.
I wasn’t disappointed by the posthumous sonata (track 8) which combined Fauré’s breeziness and passion into a quite unexpected climax. Somehow I feel that the “regular” sonata (tracks 5-7) has a bloated reputation because of its Blues movement. It’s good but not great, yet serves as a textbook example of “classics meets jazz”. All in all, this combo of the Piano Trio and the two violin sonatas demonstrates Ravel’s prowess as a chamber music composer that I regret the fact that he didn’t write more.