Royal Stockholm Po/Oramo - Maurice Ravel: La Valse, Le Tombeaude Couperin, Alboradadel gracioso, Unebarquesur l�oc�an, Pavanepour uneinfanted�funte

Maurice Ravel composed a number of works which have become classics of the repertoire both for solo piano and for orchestra. On the present disc, all except one work were first conceived for piano, which raises the question how it is possible to transfer such pianistic music to the orchestra without making it sound like a mere �colourized� version. Ravel�s orchestral writing was the result of a long apprenticeship and careful study of orchestration treatises as well as scores, notably of works by Rimsky-Korsakov and Richard Strauss. Although his skills as an orchestrator are much admired today, his ability to coax new sounds out of the orchestra wasn't always appreciated in his own time, however � in 1907 the critic Pierre Lalo complained that �in Ravel�s orchestra, no instrument retains its natural sound��