In the Dark

In my post on Saturday I raised the question of the tempo for the orchestral version of Pavane pour une infante défunte by Maurice Ravel. A pavane is a stately dance, which is to be played quite slow but it’s not a funeral dirge. As Ravel himself is reported to have said “It’s the Princess (infante) who is sup[posed to be dead (defunte), not the Pavane”. There is a temptation when playing a lovely tune to wallow in it a bit too much, I think. In this light I now share a recording of a different Pavane, Opus 50 by Gabriel Fauré which is also quite well known. Here is the composer himself playing it in 1913 on his very own piano at a tempo which I find very pleasing and not too slow…

This entry was posted on March 11, 2025 at 6:34 pm and is filed under Music with tags Gabriel Fauré, music, Pavane Opus 50, Tempo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.