KONSTANTIN VASSILIEV : Raveliana No1 – Fantasy on a theme by Maurice Ravel : Bergmann

Konstantin Vassiliev

Bergmann Edition: 16 pages

I have several pieces by this composer and always found them fascinating, unusual often, but nevertheless well worth getting to know, and here is his fantasy on a theme by Maurice Ravel, one of my favourite composers!

The first thing to say about this piece is that it is ultra – modern, with no key signature, and littered with accidentals all through so that you rarely if ever recognise the key structure or his sense of harmony , which , I must be honest , is quite different to his pieces that I have seen before.

So it opens with an Andantino Rubato with many different note value groups all following one another, and with a number of time signature changes as well, meaning that this is an extremely tricky piece to initially get your hands around. After 19 bars a Moderato e Misurato enters split largely into three voices but still rhythmically quite varied. A Piu Mosso ed Agitato then intervenes with a high voiced melody over a rocking two note accompaniment that doesn’t remain the same for very long, until a poco meno mosso leads us, after a long period where the music is on the move the entire time, into the final Presto where everything reaches an extended climax until the final bars where the piece closes on a chord of the 6 open strings heavily accented.

Difficult? Most definitely! Music that will really make players work very hard to get it right? Absolutely ! Unique in its musical vocabulary, and harmony? Oh yes , because it is like nothing else you will ever have played.So if you are an extremely competent player and like the sound this man’s music possesses, then give this lengthy and substantial piece a try.

Chris Dumigan