Debussy in can Ravel
The cloister of Sant Domingo de Pollença hosts the second concert of the Ravel Festival, which commemorates the 150th anniversary of the birth of the French composer.
PollençaIn the cloister of Sant Domingo de Pollença, the second concert of the Ravel Festival had fewer media elements than its predecessor, with a large orchestra and more well-known titles. But this second round, for its part, had other attractions, such as the small, major influence with which Luis María Suárez on the violin and Magí Garcías on the piano began the evening. It was with the Sonata for violin and piano CD 148, by Claude Debussy, a composer conceptually the antipodes of Ravel, but who shared quite a few programs in their prime, something that neither of them liked. This sonata was one of Debussy's last works when, ill, and without reason, he rejected everything he wrote. He said, among other things, that "it is the music of a Debussy I don't recognize," or "I am rotting in the factories of nothingness." Things that happen to creators and that time puts in their place, as evidenced by the luminosity of this piece, which may have lost its overdose of avant-garde or perhaps gone back a little, just a little, but the quality, the balance and the expressionist component, a trademark of the house, are indisputable. A good way to show the virtues, conjunction and harmony between both performers.
Maurice Ravel made his appearance just after, with the Sonata for violin and piano No. 2 M. 77, also of his late harvest, as one collage in which both instruments never act as accompanists but always as soloists. The bluesy rhythm of the second movement is impressive, and the turbulence that leads to the third is spectacular. The theoretical finale that announced the program was the last piece Ravel composed, originally for violin and orchestra, Tzigane. With the high-quality cadence that opens the composition, Suárez once again demonstrates his aptitude for the enormous difficulties and demands of interpreting this excessive opening. It seemed that the concert had reached its peak, but the applause prompted two encores. First, with the prelude to La hija aux cheveux de lin, an assortment of Debussy's colors and harmonies. The second was the Romance-Pastoral, by Ralph Vaughan Williams, one of Ravel's few disciples. They performed the second part, a delightful melody that served as the icing on the cake as suggestive as it was delicious.
