Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 11/15/2005, uploaded on 01/09/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

The petite Sonatine in F-sharp minor emerged alongside one of Maurice Ravel’s defining piano works, Miroirs. At the urging of a friend, Ravel entered a composition sponsored by the magazine Weekly Critical Review for the first movement of a piano sonatina no longer than seventy-five measures. He was the only entrant, and was disqualified for exceeding that limit by a few bars. The magazine soon went bankrupt, and Ravel was left with an opening movement of a sonata that demanded fulfillment. Two years later, he added two more movements, a minuet and toccata-like finale, and the final product was premiered on March 10, 1906 in Lyon by Paule de Lestang. It was warmly received and immediately snatched up by Ravel’s publisher, Durand.

Written during Ravel’s burgeoning maturity, the Sonatine is an example of his more than capable handling of the Classical traditions before him. The first movement is a well-structured, even straightforward, sonata form (albeit utilizing Ravel’s Impressionistic harmonic colorings). Two themes emerge in the exposition—the first in tonic key of F-sharp minor, and the second in D major and B minor. Following this nearly textbook exposition is a dynamic and concise development section which fully captures the spirit of prior century and a recapitulation that ultimately leads to a close in the tonic major. Owing to its diminutive form, the following minuet exists without a trio. Shifting to the key of the dominant (here spelt as D-flat major), it unfolds as a slow waltz, elegant and restrained but nonetheless building through moments of passion and intensity. Lastly, the toccata finale is the most technically challenging of the Sonatine’s three movements. Inspired in part by the keyboard writing of Couperin and Rameau, the movement shifts restlessly between 3/4 and 5/4 time and abounds in energy, driving the work to a brilliant conclusion.      Joseph DuBose

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Sonatine         Maurice Ravel

Modéré; Mouvement de menuet; Animé

Maurice Ravel was inspired to compose Sonatine by a 1903 competition sponsored by the Weekly Critical Review, a fine arts and literary magazine. The requirement was a first movement of a piano sonatina no longer than seventy-five measures, and the prize offered was one hundred francs. However, the magazine went out of business and the contest was cancelled. The remaining second and third movements were completed two years later, keeping the late eighteenth-century elegance and classical structure. Both are short in length, probably to maintain proportion to the first movement. Ravel frequently programmed the first two movements of the Sonatine, not the last, however, fearing he could not play it well enough.     Stephanie Shih-yu Cheng

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.