Ravel, Maurice & Igor Stravinsky

Ravel: 1 page (9 3/4 x 7 1/4 in.; 248 x 184 mm, sight) on printed stationery, Le Belvédère, Monfort-l’Amaury, 10 March 1926; formerly folded. Matted, glazed and framed with a photographic portrait.

Stravinsky: 1 page (10 x 7 3/4 in.; 254 x 196 mm, sight), Paris, 25 October 1937; formerly folded. Matted, glazed and framed with a photographic portrait.

a few minor fold marks
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Ravel writes to the musicologist and editor Henri Prunières, referring to the composition of several major works, expressing the hope that his Chansons madécasses will be ready in time for the first of June, noting that it will only be necessary to perform one of the three songs, referring to the Société musicale indépendante and to a proposed and now shelved plan to perform L’Enfant et les Sortilèges at La Scala in March, observing that this is another première at which he will not be participating, explaining that he has shut himself up at Montfort, as he did the previous year, and will not emerge until the chansons, his operetta and perhaps the Sonata [for violin and piano] are finished (“…je me cloître à Montfort, comme l’an dernier, et n’en sortirai que les Madécasses, l’opérette et peut-être la Sonate achevées…”).

The first private performance of Ravel’s Chansons madécasses for voice, flute, violoncello and piano,  which sets poems by Evariste-Désiré de Parny (1753-1814), was given on 8 May 1926 at the American Embassy in Rome, with Alfredo Casella at the keyboard;  the first public performance was given the following month (13 June) in the Salle Erard, Paris. In the July 1926 issue of La Revue musicale Prunières supplied a glowing review of the songs, which he described as a ‘genuine masterpiece’. The celebrated sonata for violin and piano, also mentioned by Ravel here, was not completed until 1927.

Stravinsky writes to the conductor Adriano Lualdi (1885-1971), in French, answering his correspondent’s request concerning his ballets Jeu de cartes and Petrushka, informing him that he will try to obtain a reduced score of them, observing that he might be successful in this at this hard time for publishers of serious music (“…je leur demanderai de vous faire une réduction si cela leur serait possible; peut être aurai-je du succès auprès d’eux par ce temps dur pour les éditeurs de musique sérieuse…”), asking him not to forget that the publishers Edition Russe de Musique will be charging him for preparing the music for the Tchaikovsky symphony, which is unavailable commercially, informing him also that no sooner had he sent him a letter earlier that same day than he received his of the 24^th, expressing regret however that Lualdi’s of the 22^nd has not arrived, since he is still waiting for the voucher for some tickets which he believes the latter letter may have contained, and stating finally that he goes to Amsterdam the next day and will be returning on Friday.

Stravinsky’s letter dates from around the time of composition of one of his most famous neo-classical works, the ‘Dumbarton Oaks’ concerto, which received its première in Washington the following May.