Sonatine.

Being not only a composer, but also a teacher of composition and orchestration, I have guided many students through orchestrations of notable works for piano, Ravel's Sonatine being one such example. However, the affection so many hold for this work prompted me to prepare a chamber-orchestra version of the original.

After humble beginnings as a competition piece for a weekly review — which subsequently went out of business —, the Sonatine became a piece Ravel often performed, though only the first two movements, owing to the technical difficulties of the third. It is a work for piano conceived in a highly idiomatic manner, which gives the orchestrator constant pause to reflect on how to remain faithful to the spirit, and if possible to the letter, of the original.

My experience of the styles and colours of this period of French music has proved to me that each individual musical situation must be judged on its own merits, regardless of the popularity, charm or impetus of the original — particularly when seeking to bring to light novelties of structure and to reveal compositional details hidden or simply implied by the timbre of the solo piano.

In choosing the instrumental forces of Ravel's orchestration of his Le Tombeau de Couperin — with the addition of celesta and bass clarinet —, I have sought to interpret various details of the score in ways that reveal different aspects of the musical narrative of each movement. As an orchestrator, one must expect censure from the offended or purist listener, but I am convinced that many others will delight in this work in its new colours — reveling in its emotional sensuality while marvelling at its compact structure.