What’s the best complete set of Ravel’s piano music?

[SonicMan46]

Bavouzet is my current set for these works (replaced Louis Lortie, which I probably should have kept?) - Roge is another 'older' consideration - I've not heard the Jean-Yves Thibaudet, although I own some of his other recordings - plenty to think about!

Correction of the above in bold - I did keep my Lortie set of this music -

But as I was reviewing more current releases of these works, Angel Hewitt has a 2-disc set on Hyperion; not someone who comes first to my mind in this repertoire, but the recording received an excellent rating on Amazon & a laudatory review on MusicWeb HERE - still a little pricey unless a Dyad is released - BUT, just curious if anyone has heard her interpretations/performance of these works - thanks! Dave

 

[San Antone]

Correction of the above in bold - I did keep my Lortie set of this music -

But as I was reviewing more current releases of these works, Angel Hewitt has a 2-disc set on Hyperion; not someone who comes first to my mind in this repertoire, but the recording received an excellent rating on Amazon & a laudatory review on MusicWeb HERE - still a little pricey unless a Dyad is released - BUT, just curious if anyone has heard her interpretations/performance of these works - thanks! Dave

 

I have not heard Angela Hewitt but I would not think it so counter-intuitive for her to play these works very nicely.  Right now I am sampling George Pludermacher (whose Beethoven cycle did not thrill me, but he's French, and might do better with Ravel).

[Todd]

Bumping this thread to ask if anyone has heard the sets by Hewitt and Osborne? Any good?

Heard Hewitt.  It's good, but not top flight.

Right now I am sampling Georges Pludermacher (whose Beethoven cycle did not thrill me, but he's French, and might do better with Ravel).

That's the best thing I've heard from him, excepting, perhaps, his Janacek Violin Sonata with Laurent Korcia. 

[mc ukrneal]

Correction of the above in bold - I did keep my Lortie set of this music -

But as I was reviewing more current releases of these works, Angel Hewitt has a 2-disc set on Hyperion; not someone who comes first to my mind in this repertoire, but the recording received an excellent rating on Amazon & a laudatory review on MusicWeb HERE - still a little pricey unless a Dyad is released - BUT, just curious if anyone has heard her interpretations/performance of these works - thanks! Dave

 

I once made some comparisons on the Gaspard la Nuit thread (bi-weeky appreciation), which I copied below. I think Hewitt is ok,but not one I would pick up first, especially if the price is still high. She does some of it well, but I find her worst drawback is to focus on the details at the expense of the overall line. Several peices are on youtube from that album, so you could compare for yourself as well, for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNV0BZO9Rmk

I, personally, would appreciate this. I have looked up some stuff on my own, so I now have a better understanding, but more would be useful. I don't think I had ever listened to this piece until today.

As to the piece, a tale of two performances. I listened to different performances, and that has made a huge difference. I have put my comments below of each separately. The Hewitt came first, followed by some Michelangeli (who was recommended above) on youtube. I listened to excerpts of a few others as well. I can see now how differently they play the piece. Michelangeli gives the piece clearer structure and provides a nice arc/forward movement to the piece. Hewitt seems to focus too much on some of the details of the moment, and doesn't always connect them together as well. I hated her Ondine. I liked Michelangeli's. Anyway, some comments here (and I have left the original Hewitt comments so you could see the change/evolution of views)...


Ondine (Hewitt) -oh my! All the frill trilly stuff and it goes on and on and on and on and on. Finally after 2-3 minutes, we get to some more interesting bits and there is better overarching structure to the piece (admittedly, on the second listen, I hear the overlying structure earlier, but the trills/frills are so irritating). I understand the trills/frills are supposed to be moonlight on the water? Is this correct? Not convinced. This is painful for me to listen to.

Ondine (Micahelangeli) on youtube: Holy cow! The structure of the piece is immediately apparent from the first note and so is the texture. The trills are now a part of the whole instead of being somehow outside of it. The buildup to the central portion and ending are much clearer and the Ravel sound is much more beautiful (even though recording quality is worse).  Just based on this, I can throw my Hewitt recording 'out the window' so to speak.

Gibet (Hewitt) - The tension is great if you like this sort of thing and the solemnness is outstanding.  There is a certain beauty to this. I could see myself growing to love this piece. I could also see myself hating the repeated bells if I listened too often.

Gibet (Mich) - Slightly less attention to the bell, which could make this more listenable on a repeated basis, but to be honest, not so terribly different from Hewitt (at least compared to Ondine). He plays it a bit colder/impersonal. Hewitt has a bit more passion. (Listening to Richter on this, he brings out the...dschordant aspects...even more at times). There is only so often I could listen to this piece I think.

Scarbo (Hewitt) - Finally. This portion initially strikes me as far more interesting than the other two. I enjoyed it here. But it is more complex, so may require more time to get a handle on. On a repeated listen, I thought it more static than the others even though there seemingly is more going on in terms of piano acrobatics. This movement is less memorable for me.

Scarbo (Mich) - Makes the struture easier to see (although I have already listened to it once) and thus, easier to see where he is heading. To be honest, by the third listen of everything, my ear is starting to get tired. I may need to revisit this in a few days. But the movement does not have the same staying power for me. In my mind, I have a clear harmonic and associative memory for the the first two parts. After Scarbo ends, I don't have much memory at all - dischord perhaps. Interesting that my reaction to the movement is identical regardless of who plays it (so far).

And the final verdict: Well, still working on that one. I'd like to let it percolate for a few days.

[Rhymenoceros]

Has anyone heard this set before by Anne Queffelec?  I heard it on the radio and am now intrigued.

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[Brian]

This just arrived in my mailbox from my editors at MusicWeb.



One thing sticks out immediately: 'Une barque...' is over 9 minutes long.

[George]

Has anyone heard this set before by Anne Queffelec?  I heard it on the radio and am now intrigued.

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I am intrigued too. I dig her Satie those Virgin twofers are usually cheap.

[kyjo]

It doesn't get much better than Pascal Roge's performances:

[Brian]

This just arrived in my mailbox from my editors at MusicWeb.



One thing sticks out immediately: 'Une barque...' is over 9 minutes long.

Finishing up my review. This has exceeded all my expectations. Far from giving us Generic Ravel Album #3952, Alessandra Ammara is a distinctive, even idiosyncratic artist who plays some of this music like I've never heard it. Huge dynamic range, risk-taking playing, especially in a Gaspard that's admittedly weird but in a grandly powerful way.

A quote from the future review:
"Other readings (Sudbin, Schuch, Pogorelich) are this steely and forceful, but Ammara's feels like it has only just come out of the fire and still glows red. She's not authentic to the text, and is maybe over-the-top, but maybe irresistible.

"And that's true of her Ravel generally: even where it steps out of orthodoxy, it's irresistible. She's a compelling artist with a real, individual voice. ...at least for now I'm taken enough with her gigantic, dramatic, even operatic ways with this music to defend it against any critic. This is a major release."

[Brian]

World premiere recording of original Ravel piano piece



It seems that after the publication of "Daphnis et Chloe", Maurice Ravel arranged a few of the scenes into a suite - similar to Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka. The works are of similar length and demand similar virtuosity; neither attempts to project the narrative of the original ballet, but instead they try to be successful standalone piano works.

Oh: and Ravel's Daphnis suite for piano has never before been recorded.

So far I'm really impressed with this Vincent Larderet recital (he used the scores annotated by Vlado Perlemuter), and the mere presence of a "new" 20-minute piece played so well makes it an automatic recommendation. Will Larderet be to Daphnis as Pollini was to Petrushka?

[Mookalafalas]

I just wanted to point out that anyone interested in the Casadesus
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   the double CD is going for $57 on Amazon right now, for some crazy reason (OOP?)

  However, this box also has both discs, as well as 23 other gems.  It can generally be had for a little cheaper than those two disks alone (just over $50)

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[Todd]

I just wanted to point out that anyone interested in the Casadesus
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   the double CD is going for $57 on Amazon right now, for some crazy reason (OOP?)

You can get a newer issue for €8.99 from Amazon France. 

[Ken B]

Has anyone heard this set before by Anne Queffelec?  I heard it on the radio and am now intrigued.

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I own it.  It seems good to me but I'm not a Ravel fan. I have never felt the need to get a second set though.

[Mookalafalas]

Based on Tod's review, I got the Bavouzet.  Whoa nelly.  I could see where someone might like something meatier and less ethereal, but I personally consider myself set for life.  Thanks for the heads up.

[Ken B]

Enough of this opinion stuff! I need a definitive answer. 
Lortie, Hewitt, or Queffelec?
(all players must be from Quebec or have names that sound like Quebec)

[EigenUser]

What about Thibaudet?

[Ken B]

What about Thibaudet?

Breaks the Quebec rule.

[Brian]

Upcoming release: Florian Uhlig has recorded the first-ever complete set of Ravel's piano music, including both the early, unimportant La Parade and the composer's late, very good piano arrangement suite from Daphnis et Chloe. Currently the latter is only available on an excellent disc by Vincent Larderet, who studied Perlemuter's copies of the scores.

[Karl Henning]

Upcoming release: Florian Uhlig has recorded the first-ever complete set of Ravel's piano music, including both the early, unimportant La Parade and the composer's late, very good piano arrangement suite from Daphnis et Chloe. Currently the latter is only available on an excellent disc by Vincent Larderet, who studied Perlemuter's copies of the scores.

Wicked tempting, it will be.

[KenL]

Long time viewer, first time poster.  I have all of the Ravel recordings under discussion - and a few others.  Folks have been mentioning preferred recordings so I won't bother discussing less honorable mentions - but one contender I would nominate is Sermet's recording on the Auvidis Valois label.   Sadly, this is a challenging recording to procure.  The other thing is that Sermet has been slow to record (release?) V2.



A recent recording I enjoyed -  very nice Miroirs - both performance and recorded sound...Vinnitskaya