LDV97

18 CHAUSSON ∙ RAVEL ∙ ENESCU On this disc, the Caprice roumain is accompanied by Chausson’s Poème and Ravel’s Tzigane . What motivated that decision? The choice of Chausson’s Poème was self-evident. Enescu played it constantly. By all accounts he was an extraordinary interpreter of it. I deeply love this piece, which is a declaration of love for the violin. This profound and colourful music, like everything Chausson wrote, possesses genuine individuality, genuine sincerity. That’s probably what Enescu liked about the Poème . He also played Ravel’s Tzigane frequently. The sensuality of the Poème on the one hand, and the intellectuality and the more distanced feeling of Tzigane on the other, also reflect the two facets of Enescu. The title Tzigane refers directly to a form of traditional music closely associated with Romania, where the Roma community is a large one. Is that music actually present in Ravel’s work? Ravel himself admitted that his aim wasn’t really to compose Gypsy music. He composed a virtuoso piece in the spirit of that music, but far removed from the true Gypsy style. It is pure Ravel, and as such a brilliant piece of music. Enescu seeks to reproduce traditional music in an authentic fashion, while Ravel essentially writes Ravel, using what he perceives as the performing styles of this music, filtered through his mind and his sensibility. It’s an interpretation, an evocation of Gypsy music.