Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Music

Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Music

Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Music
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CD Details

Composer: Maurice Ravel
Performer: Angela Hewitt
Edition: Music CD
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 2002-05-14
Music Label: Hyperion UK
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Menuet antique
  2. Pavane pour une infante defunte
  3. Sonatine: Modere
  4. Sonatine: Mouvement de menuet
  5. Sonatine: Anime
  6. Valses nobles et sentimentales: Modere-tres franc
  7. Valses nobles et sentimentales: Assez lent
  8. Valses nobles et sentimentales: Modere
  9. Valses nobles et sentimentales: Assez lent
  10. Valses nobles et sentimentales: Presque lent
  11. Valses nobles et sentimentales: Vif
  12. Valses nobles et sentimentales: Moins vif
  13. Valses nobles et sentimentales: Epilogue: Lent
  14. Le Tombeau de Couperin: Prelude
  15. Le Tombeau de Couperin: Fugue
  16. Le Tombeau de Couperin: Forlane
  17. Le Tombeau de Couperin: Rigaudon
  18. Le Tombeau de Couperin: Menuet
  19. Le Tombeau de Couperin: Toccata
Music CD 2
  1. Serenade grotesque
  2. Jeux d'eau
  3. Gaspard de la nuit: Ondine
  4. Gaspard de la nuit: Le Gibet
  5. Gaspard de la nuit: Scarbo
  6. Menuet sur le nom d'Haydn
  7. Prelude
  8. A la maniere de Borodine
  9. A la maniere de Chabrier
  10. Miroirs: Noctuelles
  11. Miroirs: Oiseaux tristes
  12. Miroirs: Une barque sur l'ocean
  13. Miroirs: Alborada del gracioso
  14. Miroirs: La vallee des cloches

Music reviews of Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Music

Music Review: Very Good Playing But Not a Good Deal at this Price - Consider Your Options!
Rating: 4 Stars

Ms Hewitt, who at her considerable best regularly turns out very good Baroque offerings, here falls short of the finest interpretations of Ravel. Although the CD shows Ms Hewitt as a charming player in this modern (for her) repetoire, and although her piano is very nicely recorded certain hard facts have to be faced. Part of the problem is quite simply the lofty reaches of competition in this music: although a pianist of high standards and no small charm, considered against the finest pianists of all time Ms Hewitt rarely suggests overwhelming mastery and imagination. (On the other hand I have given four stars to some fine CDs, so I hope readers will not take this review as a dish!) Merely an attempt to add a little perspective and balance to the endless enconiums bursting out in the press over this CD like Ragweed in Spring.

First and foremost there's the little matter of price. At nearly fifty dollars for two CDs we're talking ridiculous! Surely the Euro isn't that strong against the dollar. What we're talking about here is marketing a popular commodity until the buyer finally comes down with the pocketbook equivalent of nosebleed. At a fourth the price of this set a buyer can pick up the estimable and certainly competitive Pacal Roge set - Ravel: Piano Works With the money left over you could then purchase a spectacular 2 CD set of Ravels' orchestra works conducted by MartinonRavel: Orchestral Works; But wait! You're not through! Just like the late night TV adds for fancy tomato cutters, there's still more! With the money you didn't spend on the Hewitt set you can also purchase any one of several outstanding examples of the piano concertos Ravel: Piano Concertos And we're not done yet with the goodies and extras! You still have enough money left over for the legendary Munch Boston Daphnis et Chloe!!!!!! - Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe [Hybrid SACD] (Should you insist on recent recordings they exist at reasonable price points too.Ravel: The Piano Concertos; Valses nobles et sentimentalesRavel: Boléro / Ma Mère L'Oye (complete ballet) / Rapsodie espagnole / Une Barque sur l'océan / Alborada del Gracioso - Berliner Philharmoniker / Pierre Boulez

Come on folks - it's your money - why give it to the ad agency creeps and their disingenous parasites in the press who think you're as dumb as lemmings and who are pumping up the price of what after all is a recording of but one single instrument - not a plethora of union salaried orchestra musicians - faster than premium unleaded!

Even looking at Hewitt's performances without financial considerations - and you shouldn't - they still fall short of the very best. As is the case with practically everyone else, save perhaps Richter and Michelangeli, Hewitt simply cannot compare to Argerich in Gaspard Prokofiev, Ravel: Piano Concertos, etc / Martha Argerich - Hewitt simply doesn't have Argerich's demonic digital prowess, nor anything like such a creative response. In the other works of Ravel I have similar issues. One listens awhile to Ms Hewitt as she plays one Ravel selection or another and the mind drifts to other performances, performances which capture in a way she doesn't the essence of the selection with greater panache and linger in the memory. Readers have to understand - Ravel's piano music is not an undiscovered country! In the exquiste "Miroirs", a creation of sublime delicacy, even Hewitt's fellow Canadian, Naida Cole, gives her a run for her money, and shows as well a superior poetic sensibility. Reflections

Too, many of the reviews here on Amazon describe excellencies in Hewitt's playing that I don't hear, and seem more the happy acquiesence of fandom in a favorite star's style and mannerisms than sharp critical listening. The point is not at all to say Hewitt plays poorly throughout this set; just that in every selection others can be found who play better, and frequently for a whole lot less money.

Last point: It must be recognized that Ms Hewitt's complete traversal of Ravel comes in the midst of a serious Ravel piano renaissance. Currently several fine pianists have complete competing sets, including a very good one (unfortuantely at the very high price point of the Hewitt set) by up and coming young French star Alexandre Tharuad on Harmonia Mundi Ravel: L'Oeuvre pour piano Tharuad's playing is informed with a broad and comprehenisve understanding of the history of Ravel performances; he studied and consulted with Manuel Rosenthal, and I urge wealthy, price is no object Ravel fans to give him a listen. Anyone demanding to hear these pieces in the most up-to-date modern sound AND not pay through the nose might consider a complete set by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet Ravel: Complete Piano Works. Ravel: Complete Piano Works His playing to my ear is quite distinquished, and his ear for the finest details astonishing. Like Hewitt he tends not to force the drama. Unlike a number of reviewers in major publications I find that where Hewitt's playing slips a bit here and there, (See the fair comments below Mr. Lekan's enthusiastic review) Bavouzet generally is secure. I'm willing to concede Hewitt displays more personality overall, but Bavouzet appears more accurate when you follow along with the scores. Don't let the unknown name throw you - Bavouzet is an established pianist with superb modern credentials. Just don't forget the fine Pascal Roge recording at it's give-away price when making your decision!

Last note: I find Ms Hewitt's repetoire expansion a teeny tad troubling - does she really think she can play music from any period as well as anyone? (She is now well on her way through a Beethoven cycle.) In a crowded market - and there are many, many Ravel sets past and present - only a few sets will survive for very long. No doubt Ms Hewitt's immense popularity is in play here. Again, not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with her recording the Ravel. However, better people can get lost in this name-driven marketing approach. The afore-mentioned Naida Cole gives an excellent and to my taste superior account of "Miroirs", yet despite some fair amount of acclaim Ms Cole has finally given up concertizing and recording and decided on a career in medicine. While I am not totally convinced by all that Ms Cole has recorded, if she can compete with a star like Hewitt, and she can, she certainly deserves further hearings. Unfortunately we'll never know what we may have lost. With fine Ravel from Tharaud, Bavouzet and several others, the competition is tough enough. Add in classical music's version of a super star like Hewitt with her large fan base and the market becomes saturated; fresh talent cannot grow and flourish.

So the next time you jump on the marketing bandwagon of some too-pushed highly popular performer with scores of yes votes, remember: there usually are consequences effecting your range of choices in the future when you opt for this simple and easy approach to shopping.
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Taking time off from her definitive series of J.S. Bach recordings, Angela Hewitt here brings us the complete solo piano music of Ravel. Anyone who wondered whether this seemingly dyed-in-the wool Bachian might stumble should rest assured: this is a stunning double-disc. As Hewitt makes clear in her characteristically illuminating liner notes, Stravinsky's jibe that Ravel was "only a Swiss clock-maker" was hopelessly off the mark. "One doesn't need to open one's chest to show that one has a heart," said Ravel, and in these often understated recordings, one is made to feel his point powerfully. "Scarbo" is all the more dramatic through the suppressed excitement Hewitt's playing exudes. "Ondine" and "Le Gibet" are at once immaculately controlled and intensely atmospheric. In addition to those works most frequently played, we also get rarities, like "Sérénade grotesque," written when Ravel was 18, and not published until 1975. As Hewitt points out, Ravel's favorite composer was Mozart, and she plays him with a Mozartean subtlety of nuance. --Michael Church

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