Taking Stock: Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major

[bombasticDarren]

This is one of the few works I find fresh every time I listen to it. I have a few recordings - what do others think of them, are there any that I absolutely must have which are missing from my list :

Martha Argerich/Claudio Abbado, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, DG
Jean-Philippe Collard/Lorin Maazel, Orchestre National de France, EMI
Philippe Entremont/Eugene Ormandy, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Sony Classical
Samson Francois/Andre Cluytens, Orchestre de la Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire, EMI
Monique Haas/Paul Paray, Orchestre National de la RTF, DG
Zoltan Kocsis/Ivan Fischer, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Philips
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli/Ettore Gracis, Philharmonia Orchestra, EMI
Anne Queffelec/Alain Lombard, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Warner Apex
Pascal Roge/Charles Dutoit, Orchestre symphonique de Montreal, Decca
Krystian Zimerman/Pierre Boulez, The Cleveland Orchestra, DG

I am particularly keen to hear from posters who have the very new Aimard/Boulez Ravel disc

[Wallingford]

I've kept these on hand, each shedding significant new light on the work no matter how many times you've heard it:

Marguerite Long/Maurice Ravel, w/Lamoureux Orch. (the very first, of course)
Leonard Bernstein /the soloist himself, w/Columbia Sym. (his second recording....1 being w/Philharmonia)

[Jared]

Sizeable review BBC Music: December Edition, Page 73 by Dr Chris Dingle who emailed me about the review a couple of weeks ago, and said that whilst the disk was good, it wasn't quite all that he'd hoped it would be, and if I was in the market for a Ravel PC disk, to hold out for the Bavouzet disk on Chandos, which (I believe) he's given 5 Stars, in his Xmas review...

btw: Chris Dingle stays at my hostel every Easter, and recently bought me the James MacMillan: Tenebrae disk as a present, to introduce me to more modern choral music. He is a very pleasant and knowledgable man who specialises in medieval music, and lectures at Birmingham University..

[Donaldopato]

Monique Haas Paray, ORTF, DG
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Gracis, Philharmonia Orchestra, EMI
De Larrocha Slatkin St Louis SO RCA

[Chalkperson]

I am particularly keen to hear from posters who have the very new Aimard/Boulez Ravel disc

Then you won't hear from me, I like neither the Pianist or the Conductor...

[maestrob]

I am particularly keen to hear from posters who have the very new Aimard/Boulez Ravel disc

Then you won't hear from me, I like neither the Pianist or the Conductor...

I'm with you, despite the cover story in BBC Magazine calling them the Dream Team....

The one recording I have of this that I would NOT recommend is Samson Francois, who does odd things here and there: lack of coordination between soloist and conductor.

An old favorite is Paul Paray and Monique Haas, scintillating and definitely idiomatic, and certainly Abbado/Argerich would be a disc of choice. Yundi Li didn't do so badly, either in his new recording.

[ContrapunctusIX]

I wish I could help you here Darren, but your list is entirely inclusive of mine.

[Holden Fourth]

I have two. ABM/Gracis and Zimmerman/Boulez. After hearing the ABM I can't see myself needing another recording.

[Wallingford]

Anyone heard any live concerts/broadcasts of Mitsuko Uchida's interpretation?

She never got to do it commercially (Philips never gave her priority), and to be honest, I've never fully come to terms with it. She eschews any and all Gallic detachment and performs what pretty well amounts to a Germanic psychoanalysis....makes it a bit more deep than it really needs to be.

[CharmNewton]

In addition to the wonderful performances of Monique Haas and Krystian Zimerman, another favorite is the recording Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer made with Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony. This recording has been issued on CD by BMG in Japan as part of their Munch series, and is available on-demand from ArkivMusic.

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Dri ... ame_role=1

John

[rogch]

I am particularly keen to hear from posters who have the very new Aimard/Boulez Ravel disc

Then you won't hear from me, I like neither the Pianist or the Conductor...

I'm with you, despite the cover story in BBC Magazine calling them the Dream Team....

I don't always agree with the BBC Music Magazine, actually i often disagree with them. But in this case i absolutely agree. This performance is superb. Full of details i have never heard before. I actually had lost some of my interest in this concerto, this recording made it interesting again.

[maestrob]

In addition to the wonderful performances of Monique Haas and Krystian Zimerman, another favorite is the recording Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer made with Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony. This recording has been issued on CD by BMG in Japan as part of their Munch series, and is available on-demand from ArkivMusic.

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Dri ... ame_role=1

John

Thanks for the tip: I grew up with that recording, it's a gem! Henriot-Schweitzer, IIRC, was Munch's neice, or somehow related.....

The original LP has been reissued as a 12" 45RPM set of vinyl disks with the original cover and is available on Amazon here:



http://www.amazon.com/Ravel-Concerto-Sy ... 32&sr=1-27

[CharmNewton]

In addition to the wonderful performances of Monique Haas and Krystian Zimerman, another favorite is the recording Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer made with Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony. This recording has been issued on CD by BMG in Japan as part of their Munch series, and is available on-demand from ArkivMusic.

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Dri ... ame_role=1

John

Thanks for the tip: I grew up with that recording, it's a gem! Henriot-Schweitzer, IIRC, was Munch's neice, or somehow related.....

The original LP has been reissued as a 12" 45RPM set of vinyl disks with the original cover and is available on Amazon here:

Glad to share the news on this one. Finding this on CD a couple of years ago was a dream come true. I have the Victrola LP coupled with the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 (which has also been issued on CD in Japan with Munch's Romeo and Juliet excerpts but is now OP). I love her playing of the slow movement in the Ravel. Quite a contrast to the lively, jazzy outer movements.

John

[Heck148]

I have Argerich/Abbado/LSO, which I really enjoy.
the Ravel is a great piece, and a great challenge, not only to the soloist, but the orchestra as well. small orchestra is used, but the parts are very demanding - it's just loaded with "audition licks" - esp bassoon, horn, English horn, trumpet, piccolo.....

[Cyril Ignatius]

Who performs Ravel's piano concerto better than Jean Yves Thibaudet?! He released his Ravel CD with the Montreal Symphony with Charles Dutoit.

[Wallingford]

I thought, as a public service, I'd fill everyone in on the token Naxos CD of the work, performed by Antoni Wit (disc #8.553276):

It's a decent "starter," a rather basic kind of performance that simply tells the listener the main story, and almost nothing else. If you're of the opinion that a "great" artist is the only kind capable of enabling you to appreciate a piece, fine enough; but truth be told, there are definitely listeners who'd glean a good deal from a performance like this. Mr. Wit lets you hear everything in his melody lines--or mere filigree passages--that needs to be heard. This gets unsubtle after a while (and he does punch out that left-hand "E" beginning every bar he plays in the slow movement); but it is quite competently played all around. The various solos in the orchestra do their turns handsomely: the E-flat clarinet, the A clarinet's low register, the English horn, the piccolo, slide trombone and everyone else--save those two bassoons in the last movement's development (the orchestra's one of Naxos' longtime eastern European standbys who recorded at the right price).

One could, perhaps, do worse.

[Heck148]

It's a decent "starter," a rather basic kind of performance that simply tells the listener the main story, and almost nothing else. ......The various solos in the orchestra do their turns handsomely: the E-flat clarinet, the A clarinet's low register, the English horn, the piccolo, slide trombone and everyone else--[i]save those two bassoons in the last movement's development [/i].

What's their problem?? do they flub it up??

[Wallingford]

It's a decent "starter," a rather basic kind of performance that simply tells the listener the main story, and almost nothing else. ......The various solos in the orchestra do their turns handsomely: the E-flat clarinet, the A clarinet's low register, the English horn, the piccolo, slide trombone and everyone else--[i]save those two bassoons in the last movement's development [/i].

What's their problem?? do they flub it up??

Not all that significantly....just a tad off-rhythm.....

[Heck148]

i]save those two bassoons in the last movement's development [/i].

What's their problem?? do they flub it up??

Not all that significantly....just a tad off-rhythm.....

That lick is pretty hard - esp if the tempo is really ripping...it's supposed to alternate between 1st and 2nd players - but that doesn't work so well - better to have both go for the whole thing....