L'apogée de la science française: Miroirs

[hopefullytrusting]

I capped the survey at fifty.

[Hobby]

I'm intrigued by the audiofonic recording which appears to be by ravel as pianist - is anyone familiar with this and its provenance?

[Todd]

Harrumph.

[Todd]

Mr Frenchie French, Bertrand Chamayou, he of Liszt Transcendental Studies that make even the hottest pianistic properties of the day seem amateurish, comes next.  Noctuelles is swift, pristinely executed, and if not as colorful as Simon (a tall order), his dynamic control may be even finer.  And loud or soft, he can spin out notes at Ludicrous Speed, I tell you what.  It's more purely pianistic than evocative, but that's don't matter even a quarter of whit.  Oiseaux tristes starts oh so light and bright, with Bert holding back, before he doesn't.  But whether going slow or fast, his control astounds, and he extracts bright pastel colors in his playing.  A brisk breeze blows upon the surface of the rippling waves at the start of Une barque sur l'océan, Things thicken up as the more tumultuous music arrives, and then Bert cruises along the waves, as if captaining a Larry Ellison owned catamaran.  Alborada del gracioso is an amped up, almost to the point of vaudevillian caricature, with almost inhumanly insistent rhythm and repeated notes where the pianist seems to be toying with the instrument.  La vallée des cloches breathes in the opening.  Then Bert speeds up, bringing uncanny steadiness to the left hand playing, before bringing the section to a slow end, with a pregnant pause.  Then things go from great to freakin' awesome.  Slow, steady, solemn, supremely refined, with tolling left hand notes and almost medieval religiosity to the playing, the music calms the mind.  Tier S?  Oh, yes.