GG as technician:Ravel's "La Valse"

[aq094@lafn.org (Eugene Selig)]

While listening to GG's own "transcription," based on R's transcription 
for solo piano, I was reminded of the New York Times music critic's 
scathing review of GG's collaboration with L. Bernstein on the Brahms' d 
minor concerto. The reviewer, Harold Schonberg, implied that GG's 
technique wasn't too good, because of what seemed too slow a tempo, one 
that LB felt he needed to "disclaim" verbally to the audience. This "La 
Valse" performance, on one of the Sony series on GG, is not really a 
"transcription," since nothing is changed, but GG plays ALL the notes in 
the smashingingest display of technical fireworks, equalled only by V. 
Horowitz' "Star-Spangled Banner," or "Carmen" Variations.
I sent for a copy of the score from the Canadian National Library. It 
shows GG's comments and mark-ups, but nothing resembling anything 
that can be called a "transcription." Here is GG as we have never heard 
him, complete with all the ostentation he eschewed all his life, if you 
don't count his overly speedy tempos in Bach and Mozart. The Ravel is not 
dazzling merely because of fast finger work. He executes the fullest solo 
scoring of the orchestral work, making R's own two-piano version pale 
by comparison.