Search - Ravel, Stravinsky, Biret :: Archive Edition 1: Idil Biret Plays Ravel & Stravinsky

Not Very Inspiring

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 02/02/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"My reaction to the playing of Idil Biret has been fraught. Sometimes I think her playing is brilliant (as in some of the Beethoven and Chopin recordings), other times merely competent and sometimes not even that (case in point, the lamentable recording of the Ligeti Études). In this CD we get some of each. The Ravel begins with a rough and ready 'Sérénade grotesque' which leaves little impression. Then there is a mostly OK 'Gaspard de la nuit': 'Ondine' is lovely, but 'Le gibet' is boring, and 'Scarbo', while it has its moments, causes the pianist to show some technical strain. The individual pieces of Stravinsky's 'Les cinq doigts' are charming -- it is, after all, charming music of no technical difficulty, written as it was for children. The same can be said for the tiny 'Valse pour les enfants'. The 'Three Scenes from Petruchka' have their difficulties. 'Danse russe' is exciting and well-played. 'Chez Petrouchka', however, tends lose focus and does not display much of the character's impishness. 'Le semaine grasse' ('Shrovetide Fair') is mundane, not much excitement here and some noticeable slowing in the technically ferocious sections.



These recordings were made originally for the Finnadar label in the 1970s and their sound is of that period. The booklet notes, written by the legendary Ilhan Mimaroglu, composer and founder of the Finnadar label, are crassly opinionated. He comments that Stravinsky was already past his peak when he wrote the Petruchka movements in 1921 and was leading up to works that 'clogged the avenues of contemporary music [with] such monstrosities of Stravinsky's later years as 'Oedipus Rex', 'Orpheus' or 'The Rake's Progress.' Indeed!



On the whole, not recommended.



Scott Morrison"