Marion Ravot: Voyages
Solaire Records

As harpist Marion Ravot acknowledges, a musician's debut album poses many a challenge, the first and perhaps most critical having to do with theme or concept. Rather than concentrate on a favourite composer or two, she decided to orient her hour-long programme around the three countries that were pivotal to her development. Having lived and studied in their capitals, Paris, New York, and Berlin, and immersed herself in their deep musical traditions, she selected works by French, American, and German composers that in some cases were written expressly for harp—Gabriel Fauré's Une châtelaine en sa tour and Paul Hindemith's Harp Sonata two examples—and in others have been newly arranged by Ravot for the instrument. Voyages is simultaneously travelogue, homage and self-portrait.

In addition to ones by the aforementioned composers, works by J. S. Bach, Claude Debussy, and Jean-Philippe Rameau appear alongside pieces by Richard Strauss, Markus Reuter, and Marcel Grandjany, with Ravot clarifying that while the latter was born in France he became a United States citizen and one of the fathers of the American harp school. The material cuts a wide stylistic swath but a large temporal one too, extending as it does from Bach and Rameau to Reuter, whose Passacaglia was written for the album. The harp is well-served by the set-list when the diversity of its repertoire amplifies the lyrical character for which it's renowned but also calls forth its percussive side too. Voyages does much, therefore, to argue on behalf of the instrument's range and versatility.

Ravot's harp proficiency is evident the moment her arrangement of Bach's six-part French Suite No. 3, BWV 814 introduces the album. Her fingers dance acrobatically through “Allemande”and “Courante,” the precision of her plucking and her crystal-clear articulation capturing the formal beauty of the composer's contrapuntal design. The slow, reflective tempo of “Sarabande” intensifies its entrancing effect and poignancy; “Minuet. Trio” entrances too but now for its rapid lilt. The lustrous “Gavotte” sparkles in her hands, after which “Gigue” concludes the work on a breathless, high-velocity note, Ravot's command of the instrument resounding once more.

Rich in elegance and nuance, Fauré's music lends itself superbly to the harp, and Une châtelaine en sa tour, one of his two works for the instrument, is as splendid an illustration as could be imagined. Cascades of patterns, arpeggios, and strums combine to paint a dreamy, mystical picture that's more than a little transporting. Concise at ten minutes, Hindemith's Harp Sonata progresses through three parts, the wondrous first (“Mäßig schnell”) wholly absorbing in its soothing tone, the enigmatic second (“Lebhaft”) a radiant scherzo, and the third (“Lied: „Ihr Freunde, hänget“ (L.H.Chr. Hölty) – Sehr langsam”), based on a poem by the German Romantic Ludwig Hölty, a graceful slow movement marked by tenderness. Debussy cultivates an air of mystery and longing in his enticing Valse Romantique, which was written for solo piano but lends itself beautifully to a harp presentation. Reuter casts a potent spell in the intricate embroidery of his Passacaglia design, the harp here effective in the way its plucked timbres allude to Spain where the passacaglia form originated in the seventeenth century.

Three pieces by Rameau appear, “Prélude” (from Suite in A minor, RCT 1: No. 1) beguiling for its spirited dance rhythms, “L'Égyptienne” (Suite in G major, RCT 6: No. 6) transfixing in its courtly expressiveness, and “Les Tendres Plaintes. Rondeau” (Suite in D major, RCT 3: No. 1) gentle and rhapsodic. Speaking of which, Grandjany's Rhapsodie pour la harpe proves to be precisely that when its flowing cross-currents of plucks and strums arrest one's attention so completely. The last in a set of four songs composed in 1894 by Strauss, Morgen! lays to rest any thought that a harp isn't capable of conveying emotion as powerfully as, say, a string instrument. Her superbly paced voicing of the material's melodies conveys the piece's ache and poignancy beautifully.

November 2024