In tribute to Ravel’s 151st birthday on 7 March, US cellist John-Henry Crawford performs his own arrangement of Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a dead princess) for twelve cellos.
‘Composed in 1899, Pavane pour une infante défunte is one of Ravel’s most beloved works,’ says Crawford. ‘Despite its title – often translated as Pavane for a Dead Princess—Ravel insisted the piece was not meant to be mournful, but rather an elegant evocation of a distant Spanish court and the slow, stately dance of a bygone era.’
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music, Crawford has won competitions including the Lynn Harrell Competition, the American String Teachers National Solo Competition, and the International Carlos Prieto Cello Competition.
He plays a c.1820 Ferdinand August Homolka cello, which his grandfather Dr Robert Popper smuggled out of Austria just prior to the 1938 Nazi pogrom of Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass).
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