Ravel: Four Fugues, 1900–1902 (Marshev)

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937): Four Fugues, 1900–1902 Oleg Marshev, Piano 00:00 – Fugue in D major, M23 (1900) 05:12 – Fugue in Eb major (1900) 08:51 – Fugue in F major, M27 (1900 / 1901) 13:56 – Fugue in Bb major, M32 (1902) The second movement of Le Tombeau de Couperin is often mentioned as being the only fugue Ravel ever wrote. However, looking at Wikipedia’s list of Ravel’s works, one might notice that several others are listed: One from 1899, four written in 1900, and one each from 1902, 1903 and 1905. Most of them were written for the Prix de Rome-competition, in which Ravel competed a total of five times, but never won. The rest were written as exercises in counterpoint. Until recently, I thought all these fugues were lost to time, but it turns out that some unofficial scores can be found online. A huge part of the credit for this goes to the engraver Kiserlet, who have made three of the scores available on MuseScore (link at the bottom). Kiselet’s scores mostly stays true to the autograph manuscripts, but note that they did make some revisions in the D major fugue. Oleg Marshev seems to have used Kiserlets manuscripts for his recording, and in the case of the D major fugue, I have chosen to show those of the revisions that Marshev keeps. With the publication of Ravel’s Complete Solo Piano Music, Vol. 1-3 (2022–23) Marshev becomes the first to record these fugues, and I think he does an outstanding job. It would be easy to write them off as academical exercises, and not put too much effort towards them. Nonetheless, Marshev takes them seriously, and brings out a nice charm. I especially like the Eb major fugue. Kiserlet’s page on MuseScore: Wikipedia - List of compositions by Maurice Ravel: # Full list of Sources: