Search - Bela Bartok, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel :: Monique Haas Plays Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Béla Bartok, Albert Roussel

A Very Mixed Bag

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 08/28/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The newish Profil label has been making some reissues of classic recordings available. But this one is a very mixed bag. The Ravel G Major Concerto with pianist Monique Haas accompanied by the NWDR Symphony Orchestra of Hamburg, under Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, is a non-starter for two reasons: there is a much better and more recent (1965) version with Haas and the Paris RTF Orchestra under Paul Paray and, more important, this performance is execrable. Profil is a bit coy about the provenance of the 1949 recording but my guess is that it is from a live radio broadcast. Things get off to a very unsettling start with Schmidt-Isserstedt setting a blistering pace for the opening movement, so fast that the orchestra's principal trumpet makes a total mess of its important opening bars. The second movement is also taken a little fast and sounds, frankly, as if none of the musicians are particularly engaged in it. The third movement, also fast, is a hash.



On the other hand, the solo works presented here -- the 'Toccata' from Debussy's 'Pour le piano'; Bartók's delicious tiny 'Sonatine,' and the 'Three Pieces for Piano' by Albert Roussel -- are wonderful, given bracing performances by Haas.



A filler (and a bit odd to be included) is of Ravel conducting the Lamoureux Orchestra in his own 'Boléro,' a much reissued performance from 1930 that does not add much to our understanding of the piece. Ravel was not, of course, a very good conductor, and in spite of his caution to Toscanini about not playing 'Boléro' too fast, it doesn't sound much slower than any of the zillion subsequent recordings of this so-familiar piece.



Bottom line: Unless you are desperate to have the Haas performances of the Debussy, Bartók and Roussel, this issue is not particularly necessary. And it's a bit pricey as well.



Scott Morrison"