Ravel in Cleveland

Having conducted a concert in Chicago the previous evening, Ravel arrived in Cleveland on 22 January 1928 for an afternoon recital at the Museum of Art, alongside Lisa Roma as soprano soloist. 

The occasion began with a lecture, written by Ravel and delivered in English by Arthur Quimby, about contemporary music, especially in France, and his own approach to it. A local reviewer was disconcerted to learn that he had included a “Blues” in his new sonata: “it is to be feared that abroad we are known, musically, only by our frivolities”. The music performed was described as “an undiscovered country” which the audience did not know quite what to make of, and the songs in particular were felt to display too much cool detachment. (James H. Roper, in Cleveland Plain Dealer, 23 January 1928, p.15**).

Things went better at Ravel’s next Cleveland appearance, at the Masonic Auditorium on 26 January, conducting the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra in another concert of his own works. 

The orchestra was on good form and the audience appreciative for its distinguished visitor. As for the music itself, much of it new to Cleveland, the critics were full of doubts and perplexity: “brittle”, “short-breathed”, “bizarre”, “dry” were among the descriptions applied while the composer seemed “impervious to monotony”. But there was general recognition of Ravel’s mastery of orchestration, and “an ovation of particular vigor was accorded the composer”. (James H. Rogers, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 27 January 1928, p.5; C.B. Macklin, Cleveland Press, 27 January 1928, p.20; Helen Barhyte, Musical America, 11 February 1928, p.33 **).

The Cleveland orchestra was the third of the five major orchestras which Ravel conducted during his American tour, and he was deeply impressed with them. In an interview he said: “Your orchestras are the best anywhere. This is because of their international membership, and the standards of individual excellence demanded of the players. Your brass choirs have the depth and richness of tone that ours lack, because of the prevailing superiority of the instruments themselves and the fact that most of the players of these instruments are Germans. They produce a certain nobility of tone of which musicians of other nations are seldom capable, and when you hear a trumpet, it is not a cornet-à-piston. Your woodwind choirs, in a majority, are predominently French, and the French woodwind players are the best in the world. The same principle of selection obtains all through the representative American orchestras. Reports of the standards of performance are only now being really credited in Europe.” (Interview with Olin Downes, in New York Times, 26 February 1928, section 8, p.8**).

After completing his Cleveland concerts, Ravel returned to Chicago to catch the train for a three-day journey to San Francisco.

(** as quoted in Dunfee [1980] pp.90-94, 149-152.)