Maurice Ravel

Piano Trio

As with all of his mature chamber music works Ravel also emerges as an innovator of traditional forms and techniques in his piano trio, composed in 1914. Thus the 'Passacaglia' movement corresponds to the underlying form of the Baroque Period. The music on the other hand was, according to Ravel, 'like that of Saint-Saëns', which was surely meant ironically. For the historicizing template only served as a framework for experiments with musical idiom: from a constant oscillation between major and minor to combinations and overlaying of the most diverse metres.

The fingering for our edition of this technically extremely demanding work was provided by the renowned French pianist Pascal Rogé.