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Re: GG: La Valse (again)
On Wed, 8 Jan 1997, Tim Conway wrote:
> I bought and listened (several times) to GG's rendition of La Valse on CD
> a couple of months ago. Just before Christmas I switched on ABC Classic
> FM in the middle of a piano transcription of La Valse, but clearly not
> GG's. I couldn't tell who was playing but he or she certainly wasn't
> having as much effect as GG, even though the recording was more recent
> and live. At the end of the piece there was clapping and the radio
> announcer said that the piece had been played by two people, not one. I
> was so astonished that I didn't hear whether it was a four-hand or
> two-piano version, nor can I remember the players' names.
According to the notes in the Argerich/Rabinovitch recording (two pianos),
Ravel published four versions: two pianos (the original), piano solo,
piano duet, orchestra. Some of the inspiration for the composition was a
proposed ballet by Diaghilev, which then didn't come through.
GG's transcription is a hybrid of the piano versions.
By the way, sliding off to a related topic, does anyone happen to know if
Gyorgy Sandor's Sony box set of Bartok's piano music includes the piano
solo (ballet) transcription of the Concerto for Orchestra? I like
Sandor's single disc of it that was issued earlier. The "complete" box
doesn't say on the outside whether the CfO is included or not.
>
> Is the sound that GG obtained wholly because of his transcription and his
> remarkable ability? Did he double-track in some way? Is the sound a
> product of bad recording technique? I'd be very grateful if anyone can
> throw some light.
That La Valse is not a multi-track (as GG's Wagner album and small parts
of the Beethoven-Liszt 5th were). It's a full-take performance from a
mono television programme (available) where the miking wasn't very clear.
I listened again last weekend to Leonard Pennario's latest recording
(EMI/Angel...my copy is an album "Romantic Piano Music"), and again
marveled at how graceful, clear, and powerfully atmospheric the piece is
the way he plays it.
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Bradley Lehman, bpl@umich.edu http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/