26. Mimi Godebska, for whom Ravel wrote Ma mère l’Oye, recalled that ‘Of all my parents’ friends I had a predilection for Ravel because he used to tell me stories that I loved. I used to climb on his knee and indefatigably he would begin, “Once upon a time…”’ #Ravel150 - ThreadSky

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ekilpatrick.bsky.social • 21 days ago

26. Mimi Godebska, for whom Ravel wrote Ma mère l’Oye, recalled that ‘Of all my parents’ friends I had a predilection for Ravel because he used to tell me stories that I loved. I used to climb on his knee and indefatigably he would begin, “Once upon a time…”’ #Ravel150

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ekilpatrick.bsky.social•21 days ago

27. Ravel was a staunch advocate of #Satie: in 1912 he wrote to René Lenormand to advise that his draft treatise on contemporary harmony had ‘omitted the composer who should perhaps hold the most important place: Erik Satie’. #Ravel150

ekilpatrick.bsky.social•21 days ago

28. The finale of 'Daphnis et Chloe; drove Ravel mad; he even asked Louis Aubert – perhaps only half-joking – to write the finale ‘and I will sign it’ (Aubert sensibly refused). #Ravel150

ekilpatrick.bsky.social•21 days ago

29. Ravel helped #Stravinsky book his hotel for the premiere of the Rite of Spring, ensuring he found one neighbouring his own apartment: ‘that way we can exchange courtesies from our balconies in our pyjamas!’ #Ravel150

ekilpatrick.bsky.social•21 days ago

30. The closing bars of Ravel’s 'À la manière de Chabrier' bring FOUR composers into dialogue: he imitates Chabrier paraphrasing a Gounod aria, with a fleeting nod to Tristan too. #Ravel150

ekilpatrick.bsky.social•21 days ago

31. Ravel was a sharp musical critic. Of César Franck’s Symphony, he wrote ‘Just when the inspiration is at its peak, one is disconcerted by extraneous sonorities’. #Ravel150

ekilpatrick.bsky.social•21 days ago

32. And he could be cheeky in his criticism: #Parsifal, he concluded, was ‘less entertaining than La vie parisienne. All the same, it is less boring than the Missa solemnis, that inferior work by #Beethoven’. #Ravel150

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