Search - Maurice Ravel, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet :: Ravel: Complete Piano Works

Ravel's Complete Piano Music

Amy | 08/15/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There was always a rivalry between Ravel and Debussy disputing about who took priority in musical discoveries, but Ravel's music was entirely his own, as was the grand virtuosity of much of his piano music from this period, notably the cycles Miroirs and Gaspard de la nuit. Ravel was known for being a perfectionist composer, painstaking about detail. Which is why it is said that his output of music is relatively small yet exceedingly high in craftsmanship and musical quality. It may surprise people to know that Ravel's total output for solo piano spans just over 130 minutes which is all on this 2 cd set played by the outstanding soloist Jean Efflam Bavouzet. Ravel's earliest piano works are dominated by impressionism and in 1901 Ravel composed the first ever impressionist work for piano with Jeux d eaux which translates to Fountains. The work brought Ravel great success and on this cd Jean Efflam Bavouzet does an amazing job of portraying Ravel's images of the music and sounds of fountains, waterfalls and streams. In 1899 Ravel composed his celebrated Pavane pour une infante defunte, which was written as a portrait of old Spain with a sensuous Debussian flow imposed on an old dance form. The Pavane remains Ravel's most popular composition especially in his 1910 orchestration. Composed in 1905, for a competition conducted by a music journal, the three movement Sonatine is acknowledged as one of Ravel's finest piano compositions. Bavouzet is particularly impressive in the surging passion of the first movement and the nervous feeling of the finale. At nearly thirty minutes Miroirs from 1905 is Ravel's largest piano work and also arguably his most daring as he entered a new phase of development. Bavouzet skilfully moves across to this freer and more varied style with more extended developments. Ravel uses five pieces which are designed to reflect their subjects, inspired by images as mirrored in sound. Soloist gives a sensitive performance of different color tones in Ravel's musical description of the changing sea in Une barque sur l ocean. Bavouzet's delicate playing is impressive and compelling in the famous Alborada del gracioso. Originally intended as a musical tribute to the harpsichord music of François Couperin le Grand the celebrated Le Tombeau de Couperin was Ravel's final work for solo piano. Ravel was to dedicate this set of six pieces to honor his friends that had died in the Great War. Ravel was further affected by the death of his mother and at this time Ravel was inspired to compose three pieces for piano by the poems of Aloysius Bertrand under the collective title of Gaspard de la Nuit. In this fantasy world of gnomes, elves and ghosts the first piece of the trilogy Ondine reproduces the sound of water. Le Gibet is a musical portrait of the gallows and the final piece Scarbo is an ironic scherzo representing a world of nightmares. Bavouzet is one of the best Ravel interpreters out there and to get all of Ravel's piano music in a 2 cd set is great. Bavouzet makes the technical demands sound easy and provides a spontaneous, almost improvisatory feel of this hauntingly beautiful music.









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