Search - Maurice Ravel, Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra :: Complete Piano Music of Maurice Ravel

History, Art, Science, Friendship

Chris Shingledecker | Planet Earth | 03/09/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"How do I admire this recording, let me count the ways... (please pardon the awful Elizabeth Barret Browning misquote) To begin with, on the pianist, Robert Casadesus, other than Ravel himself, he is the premier interpreter of his work. Not only that, he was also a close friend and one of the few present at Ravel's meager funeral.



On the recordings themselves, they are of a superlative quality. What many interpreters today try to do is make a melodrama of everything. They forget that the composer himself drew inspiration from the machines of the time (his father was an engineer) and thus lose some of the forcefulness and directness of the works. Unfortunately, many today try to drown them in fluff and emotion.



Another added benefit of these recordings is the convenience of having them all in one set, digitally remastered of course. As a Ravel fan , I heartily recommend these to all who admire the composer, the pianist, or most importantly, beautiful music."

Superb, yes, but watch those pages, dammit!

Gordon Schermer | 03/30/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It?s a funny thing: you can be listening to solo piano recording, a freight train can bowl directly through your living room, and it will not distract you from the music half so much as a noise emanating from the recording chamber which makes it onto the final cut. Now, it is no stretch ?- in fact it would be a stretch to say otherwise ?- to assert that Casadesus? Ravel is THE premiere interpretation of the mono era, and perhaps the finest complete piano recording of those pieces from any time. His Tombeau de Couperin is so far out in front of the other serious candidates that there really is no valid comparison to be made, and with his wife and fellow-pianist Gaby, a perfect Ma Mere L?Oye (Mother Goose) is realized. The fact is, there is almost nothing to say about the musicianship on these discs which would not be overwhelmingly complementary, hence the sustained reputation of the albums.HOWEVER, I have always found it of slight annoyance that every so often, in the middle of a stirring or mesmerizing passage, Indiana Jones will step into the recording chamber and crack his bullwhip. That, at least, is how the sound of the pages of the score being turned sounds when they happen to catch flush on the polished wood of the piano. I suspect that wife Gaby was Robert?s usual score attendant, but really the blame (if any) must be placed on the recording engineer who neglected to point out and quash the noises the first time they occurred, rather than to let the entire sessions be taped with such distractions. Strange, too, that Casadesus himself did not see fit to stop playing altogether when such a noise escaped, as surely a Gieseking, Michelangeli, Schnabel or Arrau would have. That said, let me now say this: if my sniveling little remarks about occasional extraneous noises serve to deter you from buying this sublime, authoritative recording, then you are an even bigger dope than I was for bringing the subject up in the first place! As previously mentioned by another reviewer, Sony has provided facsimiles of the three 1952 LPs from which the original piano music was taken (and a fourth for the Left Handed Concerto), as well as adorning the two CDs themselves with the original blue ?Long Playing? label, which Columbia used for the first half of the 1950s. The remastering is 20-bit and therefore brings you a bit closer to the original vinyl sound than would the standard 16-bit junk which constitutes a regular CD re-issue. If you love Ravel, but fail to own and appreciate this set, well ?- you only THINK you love Ravel!"

Excellent interpretations of Ravel

Chris Shingledecker | 05/19/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My favorite interpretation of Tombeau de Couperin esp the prelude which dances over the notes like a wildly bubbling stream. I prefer this to the orchestrations which are all you generally hear of Ravel. Superb! It is probably out of print but I have bought this recording several times because I can't bear to be without it."