2CDs
and Renaissance melancholy, the clarity of a Baroque composer such as Couperin or Rameau
and the brooding romanticism of Mussorgsky, fairy tales and foreign locales (Spain, the Near East,
Madagascar), Mozart and American jazz, Saint-Saëns, Schubert and Schoenberg… However,
as Ravel’s biographer Vladimir Jankélévitch has commented, ‘no influence can claim to have
conquered him entirely...Ravel remains ungraspable behind all these masks’ and his music was no
more ‘nostalgic’, ‘modernist’ or ‘impressionist’ than that of Debussy. Indeed, he was always his own
man. It is said that when George Gershwin met Ravel, he asked whether he could study with him,
to which the Frenchman replied, ‘Why do you want to become a second-rate Ravel when you are
already a first-rate Gershwin?’ But when Ravel discovered how much money the American earned,
Ravel suggested that he should study with Gershwin!
EASY-LISTENING
PIANO CLASSICS
If you’ve enjoyed this album, why not try these titles as well?
8.550683
8.553008
8.553290
8.553291
8.553292
8.553294
8.225946-47HDCD
Debussy and Ravel
RAVEL: Piano Works, Vol. 1
RAVEL: Piano Works, Vol. 2
DEBUSSY: Piano Music, Vol. 1
DEBUSSY: Piano Music, Vol. 2
DEBUSSY: Piano Music, Vol. 3
DEBUSSY: Piano Music, Vol. 5
DEBUSSY: Preludes, Books 1 and 2
8.578077-78
DDD
CD 1
CD 2
1
Debussy
Arabesque no 1
5:05
1
Debussy
Page d’album ‘Pièce pour le Vêtement du Blessé’
1:07
2
3
Préludes Book II
No 5 Bruyères
No 8 Ondine
3:33
3:22
2
3
Images Book I
No 1 Reflets dans l’eau
No 2 Hommage à Rameau
5:14
6:55
4
5
Préludes Book I
No 8 La fille aux cheveux de lin
No 12 Minstrels
2:42
2:23
4
La plus que lente
4:42
6
7
Suite Bergamasque
III Clair de lune
IV Passepied
5:08
3:52
8
9
10
Rêverie
4:19
Estampes
No 1 Pagodes
No 2 La soirée dans Grenade
5:32
5:24
11
12
13
Children’s Corner
No 2 Jimbo’s Lullaby
No 5 The Little Shepherd
No 6 Golliwogg’s Cake-Walk
4:07
2:51
3:04
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Ravel
Pavane pour une infante défunte
Le Tombeau de Couperin – V Menuet Sonatine – I Modéré
À la manière de Chabrier
À la manière de Borodine
Menuet antique
Jeux d’eau
Menuet sur le nom de Haydn Prélude
Sonatine – II Mouvement de Menuet
Le Tombeau de Couperin – III Forlane
Miroirs – V La vallée des cloches
5:52
4:16
3:54
1:57
1:35
5:41
4:59
1:43
1:08
2:49
5:21
5:12
Épigraphes Antiques
14 No 1 Pour invoquer Pan
15 No 4 Pour la danseuse aux crotales
2:28
2:47
Préludes Book I
16 No 1 Danseuses de Delphes
17 No 2 Voiles
3:37
4:11
Tracks 1 & 6-15 François-Joël Thiollier
Tracks 2-5 & 16-17 Cheng-zong Yin
Disc 1 playing time 64 minutes
All tracks performed by François-Joël Thiollier
Disc 2 playing time 62 minutes
Total playing time 2 hours and 6 minutes
Naxos’ Easy-Listening Piano Classics presents a delightful range of music from Baroque masterpieces
to beautiful works of the Classic and Romantic eras, specially selected for discerning listeners to
enjoy at home or work, while relaxing, entertaining or travelling.
DEBUSSY AND RAVEL
Like Haydn and Mozart or Bruckner and Mahler, Debussy and Ravel are frequently paired, although the differences between them are at least as striking as the similarities. The senior of the
two, Claude Debussy (1862–1918), was more prolific and perhaps more innovative than Maurice
Ravel (1875–1937), though this does not diminish the latter’s achievement. While both composers are often referred to as ‘Impressionists’, this needs to be qualified: Debussy objected to this
characterisation, writing in 1908 ‘I am trying to do “something different”—an effect of reality...what
the imbeciles call “impressionism”, a term which is as poorly used as possible, particularly by the
critics, since they do not hesitate to apply it to [the Romantic English painter] Turner, the finest
creator of mysterious effects in all the world of art’; Ravel saw himself primarily as a ‘Classicist’,
indeed, Stravinsky notoriously dismissed him as a ‘watchmaker’. Whatever fine distinctions may
be drawn, the music of both these composers— rich, subtle, abounding in ravishing melodies
and exquisite harmonies—has become central to the concert repertoire.
‘Debussy isn’t very fond of the piano,’ remarked his teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, Antoine
François Marmontel, ‘but he loves music.’ Marmontel was an astute judge: despite precocious
talent, Debussy developed slowly as a composer for the instrument. In the process, while not
forgetting admired models from the past such as Couperin, Rameau, Chopin and Schumann,
he would revolutionise music with his use of unusual tonalities (modal, pentatonic, whole-tone,
bitonal), novel modulations and other technical innovations. Debussy saw music as ‘not even the
expression of a feeling, it’s the feeling itself’, noting that ‘music is not, in essence, a thing that
can be cast into a traditional and fixed form. It is made up of colours and rhythms.’ ‘The sound
of the sea, the curve of the horizon, the wind in the leaves, the cry of a bird registers complex
impressions within us. Then, suddenly, without any deliberate consent on our part, one of those
memories issues forth to express itself in the language of music,’ he wrote. ‘There is no theory.
You merely have to listen. Pleasure is the law.’
Ravel also studied at the Paris Conservatoire, undertaking further studies with Gabriel Fauré and
André Gédalge, and feeling the influence of such contrasting composers as Emmanuel Chabrier
and Erik Satie. The luminous precision of his own compositional style embraced Lisztian bravura
CD 1
CD 2
1
Debussy
Arabesque no 1
5:05
1
Debussy
Page d’album ‘Pièce pour le Vêtement du Blessé’
1:07
2
3
Préludes Book II
No 5 Bruyères
No 8 Ondine
3:33
3:22
2
3
Images Book I
No 1 Reflets dans l’eau
No 2 Hommage à Rameau
5:14
6:55
4
5
Préludes Book I
No 8 La fille aux cheveux de lin
No 12 Minstrels
2:42
2:23
4
La plus que lente
4:42
6
7
Suite Bergamasque
III Clair de lune
IV Passepied
5:08
3:52
8
9
10
Rêverie
4:19
Estampes
No 1 Pagodes
No 2 La soirée dans Grenade
5:32
5:24
11
12
13
Children’s Corner
No 2 Jimbo’s Lullaby
No 5 The Little Shepherd
No 6 Golliwogg’s Cake-Walk
4:07
2:51
3:04
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Ravel
Pavane pour une infante défunte
Le Tombeau de Couperin – V Menuet Sonatine – I Modéré
À la manière de Chabrier
À la manière de Borodine
Menuet antique
Jeux d’eau
Menuet sur le nom de Haydn Prélude
Sonatine – II Mouvement de Menuet
Le Tombeau de Couperin – III Forlane
Miroirs – V La vallée des cloches
5:52
4:16
3:54
1:57
1:35
5:41
4:59
1:43
1:08
2:49
5:21
5:12
Épigraphes Antiques
14 No 1 Pour invoquer Pan
15 No 4 Pour la danseuse aux crotales
2:28
2:47
Préludes Book I
16 No 1 Danseuses de Delphes
17 No 2 Voiles
3:37
4:11
Tracks 1 & 6-15 François-Joël Thiollier
Tracks 2-5 & 16-17 Cheng-zong Yin
Disc 1 playing time 64 minutes
All tracks performed by François-Joël Thiollier
Disc 2 playing time 62 minutes
Total playing time 2 hours and 6 minutes
Naxos’ Easy-Listening Piano Classics presents a delightful range of music from Baroque masterpieces
to beautiful works of the Classic and Romantic eras, specially selected for discerning listeners to
enjoy at home or work, while relaxing, entertaining or travelling.
DEBUSSY AND RAVEL
Like Haydn and Mozart or Bruckner and Mahler, Debussy and Ravel are frequently paired, although the differences between them are at least as striking as the similarities. The senior of the
two, Claude Debussy (1862–1918), was more prolific and perhaps more innovative than Maurice
Ravel (1875–1937), though this does not diminish the latter’s achievement. While both composers are often referred to as ‘Impressionists’, this needs to be qualified: Debussy objected to this
characterisation, writing in 1908 ‘I am trying to do “something different”—an effect of reality...what
the imbeciles call “impressionism”, a term which is as poorly used as possible, particularly by the
critics, since they do not hesitate to apply it to [the Romantic English painter] Turner, the finest
creator of mysterious effects in all the world of art’; Ravel saw himself primarily as a ‘Classicist’,
indeed, Stravinsky notoriously dismissed him as a ‘watchmaker’. Whatever fine distinctions may
be drawn, the music of both these composers— rich, subtle, abounding in ravishing melodies
and exquisite harmonies—has become central to the concert repertoire.
‘Debussy isn’t very fond of the piano,’ remarked his teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, Antoine
François Marmontel, ‘but he loves music.’ Marmontel was an astute judge: despite precocious
talent, Debussy developed slowly as a composer for the instrument. In the process, while not
forgetting admired models from the past such as Couperin, Rameau, Chopin and Schumann,
he would revolutionise music with his use of unusual tonalities (modal, pentatonic, whole-tone,
bitonal), novel modulations and other technical innovations. Debussy saw music as ‘not even the
expression of a feeling, it’s the feeling itself’, noting that ‘music is not, in essence, a thing that
can be cast into a traditional and fixed form. It is made up of colours and rhythms.’ ‘The sound
of the sea, the curve of the horizon, the wind in the leaves, the cry of a bird registers complex
impressions within us. Then, suddenly, without any deliberate consent on our part, one of those
memories issues forth to express itself in the language of music,’ he wrote. ‘There is no theory.
You merely have to listen. Pleasure is the law.’
Ravel also studied at the Paris Conservatoire, undertaking further studies with Gabriel Fauré and
André Gédalge, and feeling the influence of such contrasting composers as Emmanuel Chabrier
and Erik Satie. The luminous precision of his own compositional style embraced Lisztian bravura
CD 1
CD 2
1
Debussy
Arabesque no 1
5:05
1
Debussy
Page d’album ‘Pièce pour le Vêtement du Blessé’
1:07
2
3
Préludes Book II
No 5 Bruyères
No 8 Ondine
3:33
3:22
2
3
Images Book I
No 1 Reflets dans l’eau
No 2 Hommage à Rameau
5:14
6:55
4
5
Préludes Book I
No 8 La fille aux cheveux de lin
No 12 Minstrels
2:42
2:23
4
La plus que lente
4:42
6
7
Suite Bergamasque
III Clair de lune
IV Passepied
5:08
3:52
8
9
10
Rêverie
4:19
Estampes
No 1 Pagodes
No 2 La soirée dans Grenade
5:32
5:24
11
12
13
Children’s Corner
No 2 Jimbo’s Lullaby
No 5 The Little Shepherd
No 6 Golliwogg’s Cake-Walk
4:07
2:51
3:04
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Ravel
Pavane pour une infante défunte
Le Tombeau de Couperin – V Menuet Sonatine – I Modéré
À la manière de Chabrier
À la manière de Borodine
Menuet antique
Jeux d’eau
Menuet sur le nom de Haydn Prélude
Sonatine – II Mouvement de Menuet
Le Tombeau de Couperin – III Forlane
Miroirs – V La vallée des cloches
5:52
4:16
3:54
1:57
1:35
5:41
4:59
1:43
1:08
2:49
5:21
5:12
Épigraphes Antiques
14 No 1 Pour invoquer Pan
15 No 4 Pour la danseuse aux crotales
2:28
2:47
Préludes Book I
16 No 1 Danseuses de Delphes
17 No 2 Voiles
3:37
4:11
Tracks 1 & 6-15 François-Joël Thiollier
Tracks 2-5 & 16-17 Cheng-zong Yin
Disc 1 playing time 64 minutes
All tracks performed by François-Joël Thiollier
Disc 2 playing time 62 minutes
Total playing time 2 hours and 6 minutes
Naxos’ Easy-Listening Piano Classics presents a delightful range of music from Baroque masterpieces
to beautiful works of the Classic and Romantic eras, specially selected for discerning listeners to
enjoy at home or work, while relaxing, entertaining or travelling.
DEBUSSY AND RAVEL
Like Haydn and Mozart or Bruckner and Mahler, Debussy and Ravel are frequently paired, although the differences between them are at least as striking as the similarities. The senior of the
two, Claude Debussy (1862–1918), was more prolific and perhaps more innovative than Maurice
Ravel (1875–1937), though this does not diminish the latter’s achievement. While both composers are often referred to as ‘Impressionists’, this needs to be qualified: Debussy objected to this
characterisation, writing in 1908 ‘I am trying to do “something different”—an effect of reality...what
the imbeciles call “impressionism”, a term which is as poorly used as possible, particularly by the
critics, since they do not hesitate to apply it to [the Romantic English painter] Turner, the finest
creator of mysterious effects in all the world of art’; Ravel saw himself primarily as a ‘Classicist’,
indeed, Stravinsky notoriously dismissed him as a ‘watchmaker’. Whatever fine distinctions may
be drawn, the music of both these composers— rich, subtle, abounding in ravishing melodies
and exquisite harmonies—has become central to the concert repertoire.
‘Debussy isn’t very fond of the piano,’ remarked his teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, Antoine
François Marmontel, ‘but he loves music.’ Marmontel was an astute judge: despite precocious
talent, Debussy developed slowly as a composer for the instrument. In the process, while not
forgetting admired models from the past such as Couperin, Rameau, Chopin and Schumann,
he would revolutionise music with his use of unusual tonalities (modal, pentatonic, whole-tone,
bitonal), novel modulations and other technical innovations. Debussy saw music as ‘not even the
expression of a feeling, it’s the feeling itself’, noting that ‘music is not, in essence, a thing that
can be cast into a traditional and fixed form. It is made up of colours and rhythms.’ ‘The sound
of the sea, the curve of the horizon, the wind in the leaves, the cry of a bird registers complex
impressions within us. Then, suddenly, without any deliberate consent on our part, one of those
memories issues forth to express itself in the language of music,’ he wrote. ‘There is no theory.
You merely have to listen. Pleasure is the law.’
Ravel also studied at the Paris Conservatoire, undertaking further studies with Gabriel Fauré and
André Gédalge, and feeling the influence of such contrasting composers as Emmanuel Chabrier
and Erik Satie. The luminous precision of his own compositional style embraced Lisztian bravura
2CDs
and Renaissance melancholy, the clarity of a Baroque composer such as Couperin or Rameau
and the brooding romanticism of Mussorgsky, fairy tales and foreign locales (Spain, the Near East,
Madagascar), Mozart and American jazz, Saint-Saëns, Schubert and Schoenberg… However,
as Ravel’s biographer Vladimir Jankélévitch has commented, ‘no influence can claim to have
conquered him entirely...Ravel remains ungraspable behind all these masks’ and his music was no
more ‘nostalgic’, ‘modernist’ or ‘impressionist’ than that of Debussy. Indeed, he was always his own
man. It is said that when George Gershwin met Ravel, he asked whether he could study with him,
to which the Frenchman replied, ‘Why do you want to become a second-rate Ravel when you are
already a first-rate Gershwin?’ But when Ravel discovered how much money the American earned,
Ravel suggested that he should study with Gershwin!
EASY-LISTENING
PIANO CLASSICS
If you’ve enjoyed this album, why not try these titles as well?
8.550683
8.553008
8.553290
8.553291
8.553292
8.553294
8.225946-47HDCD
Debussy and Ravel
RAVEL: Piano Works, Vol. 1
RAVEL: Piano Works, Vol. 2
DEBUSSY: Piano Music, Vol. 1
DEBUSSY: Piano Music, Vol. 2
DEBUSSY: Piano Music, Vol. 3
DEBUSSY: Piano Music, Vol. 5
DEBUSSY: Preludes, Books 1 and 2
8.578077-78
DDD
2CDs
and Renaissance melancholy, the clarity of a Baroque composer such as Couperin or Rameau
and the brooding romanticism of Mussorgsky, fairy tales and foreign locales (Spain, the Near East,
Madagascar), Mozart and American jazz, Saint-Saëns, Schubert and Schoenberg… However,
as Ravel’s biographer Vladimir Jankélévitch has commented, ‘no influence can claim to have
conquered him entirely...Ravel remains ungraspable behind all these masks’ and his music was no
more ‘nostalgic’, ‘modernist’ or ‘impressionist’ than that of Debussy. Indeed, he was always his own
man. It is said that when George Gershwin met Ravel, he asked whether he could study with him,
to which the Frenchman replied, ‘Why do you want to become a second-rate Ravel when you are
already a first-rate Gershwin?’ But when Ravel discovered how much money the American earned,
Ravel suggested that he should study with Gershwin!
EASY-LISTENING
PIANO CLASSICS
If you’ve enjoyed this album, why not try these titles as well?
8.550683
8.553008
8.553290
8.553291
8.553292
8.553294
8.225946-47HDCD
Debussy and Ravel
RAVEL: Piano Works, Vol. 1
RAVEL: Piano Works, Vol. 2
DEBUSSY: Piano Music, Vol. 1
DEBUSSY: Piano Music, Vol. 2
DEBUSSY: Piano Music, Vol. 3
DEBUSSY: Piano Music, Vol. 5
DEBUSSY: Preludes, Books 1 and 2
8.578077-78
DDD
Also Available
8.578073-74
8.578075-76
8.578079-80
8.578081-82
8.578083-84
Debussy and Ravel
CD 2
Debussy
1
Page d’album
Images Book I
2
No 1 Reflets dans l’eau
3
No 2 Hommage à Rameau
4
La plus que lente
5:14
6:55
4:42
Ravel
Pavane pour une infante défunte
Le Tombeau de Couperin – V Menuet
Sonatine – I Modéré
À la manière de Chabrier
À la manière de Borodine
Menuet antique
Jeux d’eau
Menuet sur le nom de Haydn
Prélude
Sonatine – II Mouvement de Menuet
Le Tombeau de Couperin – III Forlane
Miroirs – V La vallée des cloches
5:52
4:16
3:54
1:57
1:35
5:41
4:59
1:43
1:08
2:49
5:21
5:12
Disc 2 playing time 62 minutes
Debussy and Ravel
Debussy and Ravel
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
1:07
EASY-LISTENING PIANO CLASSICS
EASY-LISTENING PIANO CLASSICS
CD 1
Debussy
1
Arabesque no 1
5:05
Préludes Book II
2
No 5 Bruyères
3:33
3
No 8 Ondine
3:22
Préludes Book I
4
No 8 La fille aux cheveux de lin
2:42
5
No 12 Minstrels
2:23
Suite Bergamasque
6
III Clair de lune
5:08
7
IV Passepied
3:52
8
Rêverie
4:19
Estampes
9
No 1 Pagodes
5:32
10 No 2 La soirée dans Grenade
5:24
Children’s Corner
11 No 2 Jimbo’s Lullaby
4:07
12 No 5 The Little Shepherd
2:51
13 No 6 Golliwogg’s Cake-Walk
3:04
Épigraphes Antiques
14 No 1 Pour invoquer Pan
2:28
15 No 4 Pour la danseuse aux crotale
2:47
Préludes Book I
16 No 1 Danseuses de Delphes
3:37
17 No 2 Voiles
4:11
Disc 1 playing time 64 minutes
NAXOS
NAXOS
EASY-LISTENING PIANO CLASSICS
Total playing time 2 hours and 6 minutes
Please see booklet for performer details
DDD
7
47313 80777 2
8.578077-78
8.578077-78
www.naxos.com
8.578077-78
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