Gaspard de la Nuit

[Mandryka]

What do yous guys thinks of Sigurd Slattebrekk? I'm inclined to put him in the top tier for depth. He's as polished, nuanced, as Moiseiwitsch's. That's as much a fault as a virtue I guess.

[staxomega]

For me, it doesn't get any better than Argerich on DG:

Probably the first I heard, a superb unbridled virtuosic take on the music. Among the good ones.

The Rosen is one I have enjoyed too - but tell me, what are you really looking for? Or is it just a case of putting it on and seeing whether it touches the spot?

A bit tougher to say in objective pianistic terms. I think of importance is the relationship between the three pieces and not seeing them in isolation (how some purely virtuoso ones come across), and within works how the individual sections relate to each other as there are long stretches with more sparsity and shorter bursts that are highly dynamic. This is where I feel Schuch and Rosen really excel. So for me this is beyond just the generic label of "French impressionist" music but is quite forward looking.

[Atriod]

Did some more direct comparisons (many in the blind thread), and Herbert Schuch was a fine standout. Overall Charles Rosen is the one that impressed me the most, this one just got better the more I listened to it.  Michelangeli had that quality as well and interpretation wise they were not too dissimilar. There is sort of a matter of fact quality to both of them, Rosen communicates Ravel so well.

Comparisons over just shy of a couple of years. Some of it done blind.

Favorites - Babayan, Rosen, Schuch, Michelangeli BBC, Pogorelich, Argerich DG, Bavouzet (favorite performance of the 21st century), Moog (favorite performance from the 2010s, an incredible Scarbo. Possibly rivaling Bavouzet to take the 21s century).

A few Japanese recordings/sets that came in that missed when I was starting to finalize my thoughts that will be added or not in the future.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Always pleased to hear Charles Rosen so well spoken of, as he is often admired more as a scholar than as a pianist. I have these: Casadesus, Collard, Bavouzet, Francois, Thibaudet, Aimard, Grosvenor, Pogolerich, and Rosen. Can't say offhand which I like best; I just like the piece. I would love to hear Tzimon Barto, whom Jed Distler says "may not be the most odious Ravel pianist on disc, but he's certainly among the top two or three." (Who are the others?)

[atardecer]

My favorite at the moment I think is the Pogorelich version on the Ravel Complete Edition on Decca.

I like this one too:

Lucas Debargue performing Ravel "Gaspard de la Nuit"

[Mandryka]

I would love to hear Tzimon Barto, whom Jed Distler says "may not be the most odious Ravel pianist on disc, but he's certainly among the top two or three." (Who are the others?)

Anton Batagov obvs. Glenn Gould if transcriptions count.

[Atriod]

Translating some of my bullet points what I wrote down in my comparisons

Sergei Babayan - the most "orchestral" in tonal color, richness, and variety, even more so than Michelangeli (I do wish Michelangeli recorded this in the studio in good sound). The one performance I have heard of Gaspard orchestrated Babayan is what it makes me think of when it comes to it being played on piano.

Rosen, Schuch, Bavouzet - quite straight forward, unmannered (you almost forget Schuch was a student of Brendel  ) yet all three stood out over at least 20-25 others.

Argerich, Moog - a real pointed quality. Moog's Scarbo is the most full of nervous energy with some thunderous left hand playing, has a live like quality to it. From everything I've heard from Moog's recordings, this would be among the top what I'd want to hear from him live.

[atardecer]

Listening through more versions of this work lately, the Samson François is better than I remembered it to be.

I'm hearing a lot of good Ondines and Le Gibets, for me the Scarbo is the one that tends to feel a little underwhelming. I like how Pogorelich does it. He kind of set a bench mark that to my ears is hard to beat.

[Hobby]

Brian led a mini-blind comparison of Gaspard here on GMG back in 2013.  20 starters, 10 made it through to round 2 (Le Gibet) and 7 to the Final (Scarbo).  Even without the files available, the thread still makes a very good read.
To pick two favourites from this thread, Argerich (live Concertgebouw) came 20th out of 20, and (studio DG) 11th out of 20.  Michelangeli made it to the Final (twice), but four others were preferred - all pianists not mentioned so far in this thread - with the 'winner' being emphatically ahead of the rest.

https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,21672.0.html

Of more recent candidates, I just love Jan Lisiecki's  d e a d  slow Gibet - on one of those ghastly themed compilation albums, 'Night Music'.

The winner was Steven Osborne who has not yet been mentioned on this thread. His is a wonderful version. Why so coy about mentioning the winner's name?

[aukhawk]

To encourage reading of Brian's blind comparison thread

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I enjoy Gaspard with Argerich and also with *Rogé (*on a lovely 2-CD set of Ravel's piano works for solo piano).