Ravel Complete Chamber Music I (Going Home Project)

Ravel brought his considerable flair for orchestration into each of his chamber works, which, by incredible harmonic and instrumental sleight of hand, are packed with vivid colour. These performances of four of them by members of Going Home Project, an orchestra featuring Korean musicians who return home to Korea to perform together, are vividly recorded with an emphasis on bringing out as much of Ravel’s detailed scoring as possible. But over and above the intricacies, this is playing with heart and passion. The Introduction and Allegro, a mini concerto for harp, alongside string quartet, flute and clarinet, is alert and sprightly, while the String Quartet, an incredible feat of rhythmic and textural ensemble, teems with energy. The hectic final movement has rarely so precise yet so viscerally thrilling. Likewise the Piano Trio, bolstered by Yeol Eum Son’s excellent pianism, reaches extraordinary dramatic heights. Finally violinist Jaewon Kim and, again, Yeol Eum Son give Ravel’s lesser-known, youthful Violin Sonata No. 1, published almost 40 years after the composer’s death, an expansive, Romantic reading.