User:Kswaim00/Introduction and Allegro (Ravel)

Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and String Quartet (French: Introduction et allegro pour harpe, flûte, clarinette et quatuor) is a chamber work by Maurice Ravel. It is a short piece, typically lasting between ten and eleven minutes in performance. The Érard harp manufacturers commissioned the piece in 1905 to showcase their instruments, and has been described as a miniature harp concerto. The premiere took place in Paris on February 22, 1907.

The work has been arranged for piano and for large orchestral forces but the version for seven instruments is usually performed and has been recorded many times. Featured harpists in popular recordings include Lily Laskine, Nicanor Zabaleta, Osian Ellis, Markus Klinko, Lavinia Meijer and Marie-Pierre Langlamet.

Background
In 1904, Claude Debussy wrote the Danses sacrée et profane for harp and string orchestra as a commission from the Pleyel company to showcase their new chromatic harp. As a response, Maurice Ravel was commissioned by Pleyel's competitor, the Érard company, to compose a piece demonstrating all of the abilities of their double-action harp. Ravel composed the Introduction et Allegro for the commission, a chamber work written for flute, clarinet, harp, and string quartet. He completed the piece in June of 1905 and dedicated it to the director of the Maison Érard company, Albert Blondel. Although Ravel's composition process tended to be somewhat slow and meticulous, he composed his Introduction and Allegro very quickly to be finished before going on a boating trip with his friends. He wrote at the time: "I was terribly busy during the few days which preceded my departure, because of a piece for the harp commissioned by the Érard Company. A week of frantic work and 3 sleepless nights enabled me to finish it, for better or worse. Right now, I am relaxing on a marvelous trip."

Premiere and Early Performances
The premiere was given on February 22, 1907 at an all-Ravel concert presented by the Cercle Musical at the Hôtel de la Société française de photographie in Paris. The players were Micheline Kahn (harp), Philippe Gaubert (flute), Ernest Pichard (clarinet), and the Quartet Firmin Touche with Charles Domergue as the conductor.

The British premiere occurred on 4 September 1907 at a Henry Wood Promenade concert, with Alfred Kastner as harp soloist. Ravel later conducted the work in Britain, first at the Bechstein Hall, London, in December 1913, with Gwendolen Mason as harpist, and in concerts of his works at the Aeolian Hall, London and the town hall, Oxford in October 1928.

The American premiere was at Aeolian Hall in New York on 3 December 1916 in a concert featuring the harpist Carlos Salzedo, who gave the American premiere of Debussy's Danses sacrée et profane in the same programme. At the first performance in Australia, at the Conservatorium Hall, Sydney, in November 1917, the piece garnered so much appreciation that the septet performed an encore.

Music
The full title of the work in the published score gives primacy to the harp: "Introduction et Allegro pour Harpe avec accompagnement de Quatuor à Cordes, Flûte et Clarinette," translating to "Introduction and Allegro for Harp accompanied by String Quartet, Flute, and Clarinet." Although some commentators have emphasized the chamber nature of the piece, and challenged the view of it as a concertante work, the Ravel scholar Arbie Orenstein writes, "Ravel apparently wished to stress the privileged position of the harp, and the composition should thus be considered a miniature harp concerto rather than a septet".

Introduction
The work is in G-flat major and typically lasts between ten and eleven minutes. The opening is marked Très lent and expressif, the metronome mark is ♩ =40, and the time signature is. The 26-bar introduction presents three themes – the first two for woodwinds and the third for cello – which reappear in the allegro. The piece opens with a pianissimo duet for the flute and clarinet, the strings enter pianissimo in the third bar, and finally the harp enters in the fourth bar with a broad arpeggio.

The cello introduces a melody contrasting the shimmering pianissimo of the violins, flute, and clarinet. After ten bars the time signature changes to and the marking to moins lent, meaning "less slow"''. '' The movement becomes faster and louder before subsiding to pianissimo again, bringing the introduction to its conclusion.

Allegro
The allegro, in sonata form, follows the introduction without a break. It opens with a harp solo and the flute takes up the melody while the string accompany with the violins using pizzicato and the other strings continuing arco. The primary theme occurs in the home key of G-flat major which is contrasted by the E-flat minor key area of the secondary theme. The melody is passed from one instrument to another and the music gradually grows louder until a fortissimo climax is reached. The themes are further developed or compressed, and a harp cadenza precedes the recapitulation.

The harp returns to the first theme of the allegro section, with the accompaniment of trills by the strings and woodwinds. The melody passes from instrument to instrument, the music becoming louder and softer again, with short interludes for the harp solo. The principal melody is given in variation form in the harp, accompanied by pizzicato strings, leading to an animated and fortissimo conclusion.

Arrangements
During Ravel's lifetime, his publisher, Durand et cie, issued, in addition to the original score, arrangements of the Introduction and Allegro for solo piano (by J. Charlot), piano four hands (by L. Roques), two pianos (by the composer), and harp and piano (by the composer). Ravel was not averse to having the piece played by larger ensembles than a septet. in a letter to Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht in February 1911 he wrote: "It is not, properly speaking, a piece for orchestra. There are 7 instruments in all. But it could be arranged: the string quartet could be doubled, or even tripled. And, with the exception of several solos, it would sound even better than the original." Several recordings of the work have the string parts expanded from quartet to full string orchestra.

Critical Reception
Comparing Debussy's 1904 Danses sacrée et profane with Ravel's piece commissioned in response, the critic Mark de Voto comments that the former are "restrained and even austere, but no less sensuous in their subtlety, without so much as a hint of the harp’s most characteristic gesture, the glissando", whereas Ravel's is "a brilliant virtuoso piece" with "a lushness of colour" and "a remarkably full instrumental sound".

In a 2011 study Roger Nichols comments that although Ravel had described the piece as finished "for better or for worse", the musical public "has long decided that it was 'for better'". In Nichols's view the work, from an aesthetic point of view, is a minor one but inhabits an "original and beautiful sound-world" and technically represents an advance on the String Quartet premiered the year before the composition of the Introduction and Allegro.

In his 2012 Ravel the Decadent, Michael Puri interprets the Introduction and Allegro as "a scene of reanimation" – in the words of another analyst, Jessie Fillerup, "a dawn that heralds renewal while pointing toward the inevitable dusk". Puri considers the music to be the closest relation in Ravel's works to the ballet Daphnis et Chloé, commissioned in 1909.

Recordings
The composer directed an early recording of the work in London in 1923, with an ensemble comprising Gwendolen Mason, harp; Robert Murchie, flute; Haydn Draper, clarinet; and a string quartet led by George Woodhouse. The commentator Robert Philip comments that the recording lasts nine and a half minutes, substantially less than most later recordings, and "the Allegro sounds very fast to modern listeners (by comparison, a 1938 recording by Lily Laskine and the Calvet Quartet, for example, lasts just under eleven minutes)".

Among the many subsequent recordings are: Ravel's arrangement of the piece for two pianos has been recorded (1990) by Louis Lortie and Hélène Mercier, and (2009) Tiziana Moneta and Gabriele Rota.