Canadian guitarists Adam Cicchillitti and Steve Cowan perform Sonatine by Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) on classical guitars. This comes via Cicchillitti’s YouTube channel. You can also hear this on their album Intimate Impressions which I posted about here. Great playing all around and beautiful tone and recording by Drew Henderson. Here’s the YouTube blurb:
I arranged the Ravel Sonatine first movement in 2017 because it had long been a piece that I was dying to play. When Steve Cowan and myself decided to record a full-length album of music by composers that spent their careers in Paris, I knew we had to arrange the rest of the piece and present it in its entirety. Ravel never wrote for the guitar in his lifetime, but I think if he had heard the potential of the instrument and its intimate nature he would have been compelled to explore it more. Nevertheless, Steve and I are thrilled to present this complete arrangement of his Sonatine for piano.
If you are interested in purchasing the score, the complete duo arrangement is available at: https://productionsdoz.com/product/89…
From the program notes of the album: “In 1903, the Anglo-French magazine Weekly Critical Review launched a composition competition for the first movement of a piano sonata. Ravel began to compose what would becomevthe first movement, “Modéré,” of his Sonatine. After the magazine folded, Ravel added two more movements to his competition piece to complete his Sonatine. The work is taut, bright and transparent, with a light texture that makes it ideal for transcription for two guitars. The first movement – “Modéré-doux et espressif” – has a well-structured sonata form, albeit utilizing Ravel’s very personal harmonic colouring. The second movement – “Mouvement de menuet” – is an uncomplicated minuet that blossoms beautifully at its conclusion. The work closes with an undulating virtuosic movement marked “Animé.”
