Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 07/31/2019, uploaded on 10/25/2019

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Dedicated to his best friends Ida and Cipa Godebski, Sonatine was composed between 1903 and 1905. Ravel submitted the first movement of this sonata for a competition sponsored by a French magazine, Weekly Critical Review, in 1903, but the piece did not meet the requirements of the competition. He kept working on the second and third movements for two more years, and published it in 1905. The first movement is composed in a sonata form in F-sharp minor with Aeolian mode. Following is a minuet as the second movement, a slow elegant dance which emphasizes the upbeat. Lastly, in a virtuosic third movement, the meter change between 3/4 and 5/4 creates a momentum that builds into the brilliant ending.      Notes by Huiping Cai

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.