Gaspard de la nuit : Trois poèmes pour piano d'après Aloysius Bertrand is the full title of this composition by Ravel. In fact, the pieces of this suite are inspired by a collection of poems published in 1842 by Aloysius Bertrand, which fascinated the composer by their dark and gothic atmosphere, reminiscent of an Edgar Allan Poe novel. As if in a grimoire, Gaspard de la nuit tells the story of three supernatural creatures taken from these poems: the water nymph Ondine, the ambiguous and disturbing hangman from the Gibet, and finishing with Scarbo, a small and diabolic goblin. The wonderful music of Gaspard de la nuit was created to express Ravel’s angst over the death of his father. And yet, a demoniac voice creeps into his music… It is the « devilish desire to seduce and delight » (Sandrine Larraburu Bédouret, 2014).

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Stream Ravel’s devilish Gaspard de la nuit, M. 55 on medici.tv

medici.tv is the best online platform for live streaming Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, offering you a VIP ticket to the most famous productions with world-class artists captured in the best audio quality and HD video. Lasting only 25 minutes, Gaspard de la nuit might be seen as an Edgard Allan Poe novel set to music: they share the same evocative power, darkness, and gothic atmosphere. Let yourself be enchanted by the power of Gaspard de la nuit, on medici.tv! Watch a vibrant range of performances of Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit on medici.tv in any place and at any time!

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A selection of our live streaming Gaspard de la nuit performances are available for free to all registered users, and the rest can be unlocked with a subscription. Live video events stream right to your living room from the most famous opera houses, and you can watch our performances streaming on your biggest screens with AirPlay, Chromecast, and our new Roku app. Come and enjoy Ravel’s best works, including Gaspard de la nuit, played by some of the best piano players in the world, such as Alexander Malofeev or Lucas Debargue, at the greatest music venues in the world, from Madrid to Paris ! 

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“After three long months of gestation, [...] it was the devil himself who wrote Gaspard,” Ravel writes in his notes. And listening to his suite Gaspard de la nuit, one truly has the impression of listening to something devilish. In fact, the technical mastery that this piece requires of the player is immense and Faustian in character. Apparently, Ravel once declared with a mischievous smile that he wanted to write a work more difficult than Balakirev’s Islamey—a renewed pinnacle of virtuosity. The structure of Ravel’s work is diabolic, etymologically speaking: Ravel based his composition on oppositions (the opposition pianissimo/fortissimo, for example), in order to put the idea of the devil into music, which means « to disunite » in Greek. Do you wanna dance with the devil? Come and listen to some of the best piano players in the world perform Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit on medici.tv!