Search - Maurice Ravel, Claudio Abbado, Herbert von Karajan :: Panorama: Maurice Ravel

Taste-ful!!

D. J. Zabriskie | Park Ridge, NJ USA | 06/11/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a very tasteful collection of performances of Ravel's music, and that's perhaps the greatest compliment I can give it.
Ravel's fastidiousness was legendary, and no matter where his music goes, the taste that one applies to how it gets there is the key element in judging the performance.
There's a lot of good stuff here from surprising sources. You expect the Martha Argerich performances to be of the highest order, and they are. I don't think I've ever heard any pianist
get to the core of Ravel's music while overcoming its technical
and interpretive challenges with quite the grace that she does.
Those these pieces (the Piano Concerto in G, Jeux d'eau and her astounding Gaspard de la nuit) are available on other CD's, but they shine here in particularly brilliant relief to the orchestral pieces which are the bulk of the program. The word for her playing here is SPELLBINDING.
The surprises come from unexpected sources. One does not usually link the big, robust orchestral sonorities one associates
with the Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan with the delicacy and precision of Ravel's music happily. Yet, this performance of "Bolero" works very well. Karajan reins in those usual big sonorities and holds them for the very end, while building his
orchestral forces with infinite care and precision from a tiny opening pianissimo into one long, carefully graded crescendo. It makes you sit up straight and pay attention to this piece as if you're hearing it for the first time.
Pierre Boulez' approach with the same orchestra to La Valse, is full of sunlight, fresh air and the magic of childhood. La Valse was Ravel's valedictory work for his mother, and Boulez
communicates all the magic of maternal love in this performance.
A gem, by any standard.
Seiji Ozawa's long, protacted tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony had many ups and downs, both commercially (lack of any steady recording contract for the first time in the orchestra's history) and artistically. Because recordings of the BSO under Ozawa were sporadic, one tends to forget what a really marvelous orchestra it was and is, and the wonderful sensitivity and sensibility Ozawa could bring to bear on particular works, particularly the French repetoire. The performances he leads here are all wonderfully shaded pastel colors, scents of dozens of flowers, delicate raindrops against
window panes, the memories of simple treasures you hold onto for life.This is a really marvelous collection. Listen to it and fall in love with Ravel, and fall in love with life."

Good selection!

B. D. Nguyen | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 10/26/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This reviewer would have to disagree with the previous review. I believe the selection is appropriate for this type of collection. To have both Piano Concerti on the compilation wouldn't be very tasteful. The most important things were there - Daphne et Chloe, Gaspard de la Nuit, Tzigane, G Major Piano Concerto, and everything else. I would be highly disappointed if any these were missing. The performers all do a 1st rate job except for Accardo's Tzigane. I prefer Joshua Bell for this beast. And of course, Argerich, the all mighty herself - to not have her representing the Concerto and Gaspard de la Nuit would be a travesty. All this coming from a Ravel fanatic who has played his complete works for piano!"