Ferrante and Teicher Duo-Pianists: Ravel/Debussy

THE MUSICObservers of the musical scene have noted a renascence of the once universal affection for what the trade calls "reductions"-that is, keyboard duet versions of orchestral works. Also there has been a widespread renewal of interest in the literature composed expressly for two pianos. To be sure, the latter repertory is limited, hut it contains its share of masterpieces. As to these in particular, it is a pity and an irony that so many are known only in transcriptions for orchestra. However, true tandem .artistry is rare, and it is not the rule but an exception when the proverbial two heads are better than one in music-making, as is manifestly the case throughout this re• corded recital.

Like so many bachelors, Ravel (1875-1937) could spend hour on happy hour with youngsters. Jean and Mimie Godehski were among his favorites. To them he dedicated his five "children's pieces" entitled Ma Mere l'Oye ("Mother Goose"), and properly so, for it was in their company that he conceived this most enchanting of all fairyland evocations. The score was written at La Grangette ("The Little Barn") at Valvins, home of his friends "Cipa" ( Cyprien) and Ida Godehski, during the summer of 1908. One of the many transients at La Grangette that season was the famous publisher Jacques Durand. It happened that he walked in at a moment when Ravel was busily occupied with his young playmates, who were at once dispatched to the keyboard for a performance of some fancifully programmatic piece that the star boarder had composed for them the day before. It was all in fun,· hut Durand was impressed enough to extract a promise from Ravel that he would think about developing his "Mother Goose" idea into something serious. Beginning that very afternoon, the composer delightedly obliged. It was his plan to enlist the Godehski children for the premiere of Md Mere l'Oye, hut try as he did there was no assuaging their terror. As it turned out the first performance was given at the Salle Gaveau at Paris on the 20th of April, 1910, by Jeanne Leleu (aged six) and Genevieve Durony (aged ten). • (At the urging of choreographer Jeanne Hugard, Ravel later contrived a ballet scenario for which he transcribed and augmented the piano duet score, adding a Prelude, the Danse du Rouet, and several interludes. The first balletic Ma Mere l'Oye was mounted at the Theatre des Arts in Paris on the 28th of January, 1912. The standard orchestral suite .comprises only the five original pieces as arranged. The transcription for 2 pianos, 4 hands, heard in this recording, was made from the original duet version -by Gaston ChoisneU

The tableaux. do not bear any plot relation one to the next, and, needless to say, the argument of Todd Bolender's recent psychological ballet, Mother Goose Suite, is so alien to the Ravel conception as to obviate comment. The subtitles are self-explanatory on their own juvenile terms as to the fantasies evoked: (1) "Pavane ,of the Sleeping Beauty," (2) "Hop-o'-my-Thumh," (3) "Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas," (4) "The Conversations of Beauty and the Beast," and (5) "The Fairy ,Garden." Ravel's "choreographic poem" La V alse-,iriginally to have been called Wien ("Vienna")-was projected as "a kind of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz, in which there is mingled in my thoughts the impression of a deceptive and fateful vortex." The composer affixed this note to the score: "At first the scene is dimmed by a sort of swirling mist, through which one discerns, vaguely and intermittently, the waltzing couples. Little by little the vapors disperse, the illumination grows brighter, revealing an immense ballroom filled with dancers; the blaze of the chandeliers comes to full splendor. An Imperial Court about 1855."

Apparently the orchestral La Vdlse took shape out of a two-piano version, for the· latter was heard first, in N ovemher of 1920 at Vienna, with Ravel and the Italian composer Alfredo Casella at the keyboards. (The full score was heard in premiere at a Lamoureux concert in Paris on the 12th of December following under Camille Chevillard; Ida Rubinstein danced in the first balletic performance, to Bronislava Nijinska's choreography, at the Opera on November 20th, 1928.)

Ravel did not want to write Bolero. The aforementioned Rubinstein had implored him to compose something new for her, and he had agreed on the condition that she would be content with an abridged orchestration of the Alheniz Iberia. What he did not know, until it was too late, was that the conductor Fernandez Arbos owned exclusive rights to his countryman's music and was even then fashioning a ballet from Iberia. Ravel learned this in June of 1928 from Joaquin Nin, his neighbor at St. Jean-de-Luz. Faced with an early autumn deadline, he had no alternative hut to forget Iberia and start afresh-,ir so he thought, although Arbos later said that he would have been only too willing to cede his rights.

One morning that July, the critic Gustave Samazeuilh arrived at Ravel's house to fetch him for a swim. He found the composer intently at the piano. Acknowledging his presence, Ravel motioned the visitor to a chair and asked him to listen. Then, with one finger, he played a peculiar rhythmic figure and repeated it several times, metronomically, as if transfixed. "Don't you find," he inquired finally, "that this tune has something particularly ... insisting?" That was the beginning of Bolero. The score was finished by October 6th. Ravel himself was to describe it as a "crescendo on a commonplace melody," and he never did understand its induction into the standard repertory. The ballet itself, first given that November 22nd at the Opera with Rubinstein dancing Nijinska's choreography, quickly was forgNten. But the music was performed at a Lamourex concert under Paul Paray on January 11th, 1930, with such sensational success that there could he no doubt as to its future. Its initial popularity has not abated, even after a quarter-century of imperfect performances. It is heard in this recording in the transcription for 2 pianos, 4 hands, made by the composer himself.

Achille-Claude Debussy (1862-1918) wrote to the Belgian virtuoso Eugene Ysaye in September of 1894 that he was composing three "nocturnes" esp·ecially for him-all for violin and orchestra. As far as we know these works did not materialize, hut doubtless they provided sketch material for the renowed triptych of 1899 from which we hear Nuages ("Clouds") and F etes ("Festivals"). in the transcription for 2 pianos, 4 hands, made by Maurice Ravel. The omnibus score, which includes also the diaphanously non-pianistic Sirenes ("Sirens"), is dedicated to the publisher and librettist • Georges Hartmann, although the autograph manuscript had been inscribed to "Lily-Lilo" (nee Rosalie Texier, the first Mme. Debussy);

The composer was at pains to advise that the over-all title, Nocturnes, "is to be interpreted here in a general and, more particularly, in a decorative sense. Therefore, it is not meant to designate the usual form of a nocture, but rather all the impressions and the special effects of light that the word suggests. Nuages renders the immutable aspect" of the sky and the slow, solemn motion of the clouds fading away in gray tones slightly tinged with white. F etes gives us the vibrating, dancing rhythm of the atmosphere with sudden flashes of light. There is also the episode of the procession ( a dazzling, fantastic vision) which passes through the festive scene and becomes merged in it. But the background remains persistently the same: the festival with its blending of music and luminous dust participating in the cosmic rhythm."

One wants to say more about these wonderful pieces, hut Debussy's abhorrence of annotative dissection gives pause.

THE ARTISTSFERRANTE and TEICHER began their astonishing career as duo-pianists when they met at the age of six at New York's Juilliard School of Music, where they shared the distinction of being two of the youngest students to have been accepted by that famous school. Following their graduation and after a period of concertizing, they both returned to teach at Juilliard, and to continue their work of enlarging, augmenting and creating new duo-piano material. Their programs of the classical repertoire have found favor with audiences far and wide. They have also gained an enviable following for their intricate arrangements of popular tunes. The Ferrante and Teicher "Vanette"-a special truck holding two grand pianos-has become a familiar sight on America's transcontinental highways, speeding these two artists to their engagements. Besides many radio performances they have also received critical acclaim for their New York recitals and appearances with leading symphony orchestras in this country.

THE RECORDThis recording is processed according to the R.I.A.A. characteristic from a tape recorded with Westminster's exclusive "Panorthophonic"® technique. To achieve the greatest fidelity, each Westminster record is mastered at the volume level technically suited to it. Therefore, set your volume control at the level which sounds best to your ears. Variations in listening rooms and playback equipment may require additional adjustment of bass and treble controls to obtain NATURAL BALANCE. Play this recording only with an unworn, microgroove stylus (.001 radius). For best economical results we recommend that you use a diamond stylus, which will last longer than other needles. Average playback times: diamond-over 2000 plays; sapphire--50 plays; osmium or other metal points--he sure to change frequently. Remember that a damaged stylus may ruin your collection.

The following notes were from the ABC-Paramount reissue, titled The Artistry of Ferrante and Teicher. They appear to have been written after Ferrante & Teicher's success at United Artists.

Although they have performed as a double-piano team in virtually every corner of the globe, it was only recently that the full potential which lay in the gifted hands of Arthur Ferrante and Louis Teicher was realized by an eager public. Not until they struck the vast general fancy with their recording of the theme music from a widely-heralded motion picture did Ferrante and Teicher begin to make the universal impact for which they had been striving ever since the two had met as child prodigies at the famed Juilliard School of Music in New York.

This would be a sad commentary indeed, had not the team achieved a gratifying measure of success through the years, both with their remarkable performances of the classics in the traditional style which characterizes true artists, and the electrifying experimentations in sound which delighted and amazed audiences throughout the world. Employing every facet of their pianos, Ferrante and Teicher produced sounds and musical effects far beyond the normal concept of the keyboard itself, plucking the strings, striking the soundboard, using ingenious muted effects across the strings, etc., etc. Using this surprise element, the duo-pianists achieved a notable recognition both as peerless musicians and as entertainers in the strictest sense of the term.

For almost two decades, Ferrante and Teicher have been recording in the two extremes, as genuine classicists and as proponents of new dimensions in sound. It was in the latter phase, however, that their multitudinous fans were wont to regard the term, accepting the standard pianoforte recordings almost as supplemental tangents.

With the tremendous success of the motion picture theme recording, however, Ferrante and Teicher emerged as keyboard virtuosi of unexcelled stature. Besides their fans of long standing, a vast new audience of innumerable Ferrante and Teicher aficionados had accumulated. Today, they stand without peers in the realm of duo-pianists, their concert appearances filled to the rafters with S.R.O. crowds, a full schedule of guest appearances on television and, above all, an unbelievable schedule of recording dates.

In this long-playing recording, Ferrante and Teicher have returned to their “first love,” so to speak—the classics. Concerting their joint efforts on the works of Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy, the team demonstrates the impeccable artistry, interpretation and individualistic technique that has always distinguished their playing and brought them unprecedented acclaim. From the moment they transport you through the haunting strains of the Bolero until the final chords of the Debussy nocturnes, Nuages and Fêtes are struck, you will become enraptured with the variance of moods which Ferrante and Teicher are able to summon with the magic of their twenty combined digits. Here, then, is the unsurpassed excellence of Ferrante and Teicher in the delightful program of Ravel and Debussy.

Natt Hale