CCMusic.com

In Bertrand Chamayou's words, Ravel Fragments is "a personal contribution to the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of a composer who has been with me constantly since I was a child". An album of solo piano music, it ranges from Ravel's own transcriptions of La Valse and extracts from Daphnis et Chloé - both, of course, spectacular orchestral works - to Chamayou's own transcriptions of vocal works by the composer, and to pieces that pay tribute to Ravel. Five of these are by composers of the past - Arthur Honegger, Joaquín Nin, Alexandre Tansman, Xavier Montsalvatge and Ricardo Viñes (the pianist who championed the music of Ravel, Debussy and other major figures in the early 20th century), and three by composers of our own time - Betsy Jolas, Salvatore Sciarrino and Frédéric Durieux.