DESCRIPTION:
Maurice Ravel - Sonatine (1903-1905), Mvt 3, Animé.

Performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

Back in F# minor, this movement is also in Sonata form, as the first movement. As the main theme (more of a motive), Ravel uses the mirror image of the first movement's opening sigh. The rising fourth plays a crucial role through this movement, as the backbone of the first and second themes. Ravel had made piano rolls of the first and second movements of the Sonatine, but refused to record or perform the third, as he considered it far too difficult. The piece is the spitting of a Toccata, and reflects Debussy's Toccata from Pour le Piano, and foreshadows some of the proportions in the Toccata of Le tombeau de Couperin.