Re: [F_minor] Ravel

[Brad Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

f h wrote:
> I hope that the links will play for you. This is GG's entirely new rendition of Ravel's "La Valse".  I am blown away.  GG has captured the inner essence of this music much more ably than most orchestral versions.
>
> Now, this is what I call good "shock and awe".
>
> What do you all feel?

I won't speak for anybody else in the "shock and awe" you're hoping 
they'll feel, but I like both of Leonard Pennario's recordings of that 
piece better than Gould's.  Abbey Simon's is excellent, too.  Better 
elegance and control of tone.  Pennario's first one was from 1954, and 
it even has better *sound* than this Gould TV performance (which I have 
on the 1989 Nuova Era CD).

There's lots of flashy and fast finger-work, sure, and Gould was great 
at that...but some of these other pianists sublimated those notes even 
better into a colorful texture.  I'm disappointed that Gould didn't do a 
proper studio recording in better sound, beyond this video show-off venture.

You can get the Sony CD of this Gould video at:
http://www.amazon.com/Glenn-Gould-Krenek-Webern-Debussy/dp/B0000028O5

Pennario's first one:
http://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Pennario-Early-Years-1950-1958/dp/B000JCEB1I
(but his stereo remake was even better)

Simon's:
http://www.amazon.com/Ravel-Complete-Music-Solo-Piano/dp/B000001K24

The composer's own published piano score is readily available here cheap:
http://www.amazon.com/Tombeau-Couperin-Other-Works-Piano/dp/048629806X
It has some extra lines above the staff showing what some of the other 
orchestral instruments are doing in the original.  Gould added some of 
these optional notes back into his keyboard interpretation...which isn't 
to say that Ravel's arrangement necessarily *needed* such further 
elaboration!


Brad Lehman
_______________________________________________
F_minor mailing list
F_minor@email.rutgers.edu
https://email.rutgers.edu/mailman/listinfo/f_minor