A joint recital between beloved pianist and authoritative Ravel interpreter Gwendolyn Mok and Founder/Artistic Director Jeffrey LaDeur. Miroirs represents a landmark development in the evolution of Ravel’s style, and each of the five pieces explores striking tonal and expressive territory that bear Ravel’s unique musical signature. The individual pieces are each dedicated to a member of Ravel’s circle, a counterculture artistic group known as “Les Apaches”. One can imagine heady nights in Paris with the likes of Ravel, Ricardo Viñes, Tristan Klingsor, Emile Vuillermoz, and later, Stravinsky. From the elusive Noctuelles (Night Moths, undoubtedly a reference to the group) to the languid depths of Oiseaux tristes, the hypnotic waves of Une Barque sur l’ocean and the virtuoso fireworks of Alborada del gracioso, the cycle concludes with the evocative and placid La vallée des cloches.
The second half of this program will mirror the first with a rarely heard masterpiece, Séverac’s Cerdaña. Cast in five evocative pieces, Séverac paints a dazzlingly colorful portrait of the region where France and Spain are separated by the Pyrenees. Debussy once wrote to Séverac saying,”…your music smells good…” and indeed, this work radiates the perfume of citrus, jasmine, and lavender. Parallels to Ravel’s Miroirs can be heard in the echo of bells, birdsong, flamenco, and in the works centerpiece (Les muletiers devant le Christ de Llivia) one hears a mystical longing for the divine.