Maurice Ravel -The Swiss Watchmaker

Maurice Ravel was born on March 7, 1875, in the small fishing village of Ciboure in the Basque region, near the Franco-Spanish border.  His father, Pierre-Joseph, was a Frenchman of Swiss descent. Pierre-Joseph, a distinguished engineer, met and fell in love with his future wife, a young and beautiful Basque, Marie Delouart, at the time she worked on the Spanish railways.  A few months after Maurice's birth, the family moved from Ciboure to Paris. The parents of Maurice Ravel, Pierre-Joseph Ravel and Marie Delouart. Maurice had a happy childhood. The parents encouraged their two children - Edouard was born in 1878 - to follow their vocation. Maurice's inclination was music. He started music lessons at the age of seven.  Unlike the parents of other composers, Pierre-Joseph viewed positively the prospect of a musical career and sent Maurice to the France's most important musical college, the Conservatoire de Paris in 1889. In the same year, the Paris Exhibition brought toget
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Tschaikovsky - 1812 Overture, op. 49

Tchaikovsky's Overture 1812 expresses Russia's nationalist spirit for the Russians' magnificent victory over Napoleon.

In 1880, when he was writing the charming Serenade for Strings, Tchaikovsky undertook to compose a "ceremonial introduction" for an exhibition of industrial art in Moscow. As a theme of his introduction he chose Napoleon's Russia Campaign, which ended with the great victory of the Russian Army. At first the composer intended the introduction to be for outdoor performance and felt that it should be "very loud and noisy". Since then the introduction has become his most famous and most popular concert work.

The "1812 Overture" is in fact an introduction to a concerto, in other words is a stand-alone work of orchestral music and not an introduction to opera or a more extensive work. The play describes the invasion of Russia by Napoleon's troops in 1812 and their retreat and defeat in the winter of the same year. Despite the composer's doubts about the music, it is certainly a very successful anniversary project.

It begins gently and ritually with the strings that play the melody of an old Russian anthem. Soon the music becomes rhythmic, as Napoleon's troops are promoted to Russia. Tchaikovsky depicts the warring troops using escerpts from the French national anthem (La Marseillaise) and various Russian traditional melodies.

The Spirit of Mother Russia

But another theme that violins play high, invokes the insetheless spirit of Mother Russia. The sound of the cannon and the cymbal squash, recalls the battle of Borodino, near Moscow (the French arrived in Moscow, but were soon forced to retreat due to devastation they suffered from the terrible Russian winter).

The introduction celebrates the final Russian victory with musical cannons and a joyous bell, while the brass instruments triumplantly announce the theme of the Russian national anthem.


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