Naida Cole
List Price:
Our Price: $10.25
You Save: $6.73 (40%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.00 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Composer: Gabriel FaureComposer: Emmanuel Chabrier
Composer: Erik Satie
Composer: Maurice Ravel
Performer: Naida Cole
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2001-02-13
Music Label: Decca
Soundtracks:
- Ballade
- Dix pieces pittoresques: x. Scherzo - valse
- Dix pieces pittoresques: vi. Idylle
- Bourree fantasque
- Gymnopedie No. 1
- Jeux d'Eau
- Pavane pour une Infante defunte
- Gospard de la Nuit: i, Ondine
- Gospard de la Nuit: ii. Le Gibet
- Gospard de la Nuit: iii. Scarbo
Music reviews of Naida Cole
Music Review: A showcase of French piano music with varied results
Rating: 4 Stars
If you had to pick some highlights of 19th-century French music for piano (Debussy excluded), many of the selections here would make the list. Each of these composers admired the next and influenced the younger ones. Ravel learned under Faure and was bewitched by Chabrier's unusual music as was Erik Satie. Each composed a small number of fairly high quality works that restored some repect for French instrumental music which had been overshadowed by the opera.
This vividly recorded 1999 Decca recording is somewhat of a debut for the youngster Naida Cole after winning some notable competitions. About the same time fellow-Canadian Angela Hewitt was making herself known with some defining Bach recordings (Hyperion). Hewitt also recorded several of these pieces (Ravel, Chabrier) and makes for an interesting comparison to Naida Cole's performances here.
Ms. Cole takes on some notable challenges in these works - particularly Ravel's demonically difficult Gaspard da la Nuit - and achieves different levels of success through the program. The opening Faure Ballade finds a comfortable and quintessentially-French communicative voice throughout that comes off well. A highlight of the set surely is the Scherzo-valse (waltz) by Chabrier. Cole's perky legato and bouyant romp throughout illuminates Chabrier's kind of Parisian frivolty brilliantly. This same lighthearted, crisp lilt is maintained in the delicately textured Idyll which is also more successful in its charm and innocence than Hewitt's fine 2006 recording. However, Chabrier's celebrated Bourree fantasque gets an overly-kinetic treatment by Naida that results in a blurring of its unique appeal where Hewitt finds the right punchy but not-too-fast tempo and staccato accent to make the piece bound effortlessly ahead. Satie's over-played Gymnopedie seems to droop and drag in Cole's hands, but it is probably hard to make this omni-popular piece unappealing (or appealing) to people familiar with it.
With Ravel's music comes some formidable and deterity tests for any concert pianist. Naida Cole's Jeux d'Eau ("fountains") comes off attractive but lacks a little of the effervesence and dramatic build-up of her fellow Candian's version. Both find the delicate emotional core of the Pavane with its innocent and irresistable lyricism. But, in the legendary Gaspard, Hewitt's control, precision and ability to build suspense by tonal/dynamic shading is superior to Cole who is a bit shaky in the opening ripples of Ondine and rather uneven in the sombre distant, B-flat tolling of the middle movement. But, these are minor criticisms as these two movements by Cole mostly conveys the unique "tone poem" that Ravel intended. In the final movement (Scarbo), Hewitt creates a seemingly tame yet insidious image of the haughting being with some crystal-clear articulations of the monsterous technical difficulties. However, things seems to fall apart here for Cole who turns Scarbo into a rather jerky and overreaching display that misses the mark (along with some rather strange appergio bursts and unfortunate extraneous noices). It is fast but not brilliant. As the music critic from ClassicsToday (who rated this 6/10 for performance) put it, "Cole's lightfingered, super-fast romp through Scarbo lacks the dynamism, high voltage, and demonic edge needed to make this movement stick in your subconscious like a scary movie. Who wants a G-rated Scarbo when you can get Argerich's or Pogorelich's R-rated features?" The young pianist deserves credit for attempting such a daunting work, but such virtuostic legends as Gaspard are really the playing field of only the greatest of the great.
Classical CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Classical CDs
Winterscapesby London Philharmonic
Prophetic Voice; Published: 2000-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops:
The Queen, the Bear, & the Bumblebeeby Dini Petty
Children's Group; Published: 2001-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.38
Price in other shops:
Classical Kids - Beethoven Lives Upstairs CdrRelease date: 2000-04-05; Music CD
Best price: $24.98
Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos))by Malcolm Sinclair, Jeremy Siepmann
Naxos; Published: 2003-11; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $35.99
![Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS] Image](/images/Jose-Carreras-Jubileum-Concert-VHS-1584481471-X.jpg){kind=small}
Jose Carreras - Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS]Sling Shot; Release date: 2000-04-18; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.86
Price in other shops:
![Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS] Image](/images/Tchaikovsky-The-Nutcracker-Nureyev-Park-Royal-Ballet-VHS-156127092X-X.jpg){kind=small}
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-09-09; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.89
Price in other shops:
![Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS] Image](/images/Lonely-Town-Lonley-Street-Sergeant-Early-Dream-VHS-1561270857-X.jpg){kind=small}
Rambert Dance Company - Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-10-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
Winter Music: Composing the Northby John Luther Adams
Wesleyan; Published: 2004-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.95
Price in other shops:
![Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Puccini-La-Fanciulla-del-West-Santi-Domingo-Neblett-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720382-X.jpg){kind=small}
Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $6.38
Price in other shops:
![Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Verdi-Falstaff-Giulini-Bruson-Ricciarelli-Nucci-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720358-X.jpg){kind=small}
Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops:
Similar CDs
