Ravel in Buffalo

After his sight-seeing at the Grand Canyon, Ravel completed the long train journey to Buffalo, New York, for the penultimate recital of his tour on 17 April 1928, and as soon as he arrived he gave an interview to the local evening paper, whose reporter was impressed with the composer’s energy and constant movement. “He says he walks 12 miles every day. He walked fully half that distance during a half-hour interview in the narrow confines of his bedroom. He can’t keep still. And when he say he gets little or no sleep when in the throes of composition, his statement is not hard to believe… He looks a bit tired.” (Buffalo Evening News, 17 April 1928, p.30**).

The recital, under the auspices of the Buffalo Musical Foundation, took place in the ballroom of the Hotel Statler, and Ravel performed a programme of piano works and songs with the soprano Greta Torpadie. 

Their reception by both the large audience and the local press, seems to have been unequivocally warmer than in some of Ravel’s previous appearances. “Throughout the performance the listener was aware that in the person of Ravel, a profound musician presided at the piano; one skilled rather in creative technique than that of keyboard performance. But in his playing musicianship dominated and he failed not in the delivery of the music’s message. He gave his lovely Sonatine in interesting manner, and the Pavane with welcome finish. The composer-pianist’s hearers applauded him insistently and he responded with additional solo numbers.”

Although this was only the second occasion on which Ravel had collaborated with Greta Torpadie, she made a particularly strong impression as a natural interpreter of his works. “…She seemed an ideal exponent of the intimate style of the songs of the program. …[She] delivered the several lyrics with such superb finish and with such unerring grasp and projection of mood, that her every interpretation held the interest of her hearers.” (Buffalo Evening News, 18 April 1928, p.22**).

After this performance, Ravel returned briefly to New York before proceeding to Montréal for his final engagement.

(** as quoted in Dunfee [1980] pp.78-79, 143-144.)