Customer Reviews

Ravel Plays Ravel (Original Piano Rolls)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Not only is the toccata performed by Robert Casadesus and not by Ravel, as the recording states, but the Duo-Art rolls which were used to make this recording has been shown by historians to be _incorrectly calibrated_ (in the Ronald Woodley article in the cambrige compainion to ravel, p222) and therefore absurdly and grotesquely twisted.

There are recordings available with these rolls correctly calibrated and they are *wonderful* (the "masters of the piano roll" cd issued recently by dal segno)
[...]


don't let the cheap price fool you: Ravel would be seriously angered to have this recording attributed to him.

There is some doubt about this "historical" recording. The title of the CD is "Ravel plays Ravel". Except what you read from the Amazon website, you couldn't find any information about the recording in the accompanying pamphlet or on the CD itself. There is no name for the orchestra that played the Bolero, you are not sure whether Ravel was the conductor to this anonymous orchestra or he was just a cymbals player sitting in the back of orchestra. For the solo piano pieces, it didn't say it was from live recordings or piano rolls. All the accompanying pamphlet said is just a brief generic biography of Ravel. Only two out of the seven works mentioned are actually on the CD.

The copyright of this recording is "1995 Delta Music", Delta Music is a seldem heard name. The CD is issued by a truly budget label - "Laser Light Digital". You certainly get a bottom budget price on this CD, but whether it is historical or not? only Ravel knew!

This CD cotains something that we normally do not get a look at - five works as they were actually performed by the original composer.

The "Bolero" that begins this recording, however, is by the Halle Orchestra under the baton of Sir John Barbirolli. Although not the best recording of "Bolero" (that distinction belongs to Pierre Boulez and the Berlin Philharmonic), it is certainly up to the standards of the remainder of the album.

And it is the rest of the numbers on this CD that give it the distinction it deserves. Transcribed and transferred from original piano rolls that had been manufactured from Ravel's own hand, these recordings are a rare look at musical works that were composed =and= played by the composer.

"Pavanne for a Dead Princess" starts the show, followed by "Valley of the Bells", a toccata from "Le Tombeau de Couperin", "The Gibbet", and "Sad Birds". There five recordings show students how Ravel himself would have played his own pieces.

These five recordings are what make this album a "must buy" for students and fans of Ravel and a worthy addition to the classical library, especially for classical radio stations.

I first bought this recording on vinyl over 25 years ago. I
was thrilled to find it on CD as my vinyl copy has too much
wear on it now.

Ravel himself recorded his music on a Duo Art player piano
mechanism, which reproduces every nuance of the artist. To
listen to this recording is to hear the Master himself! My own
favorite cut is La Vallee de Cloches (The Valley of the Bells).
Sit and listen to this piece with your eyes closed and it will
take you places you've never been before. This is true magic!

This is a Laserlight Digital album. Of necessity, it was recorded prior to 1937 when Ravel died. Laserlight has done an outstanding job recreating especially Bolero as well as capturing the intent and expression of Ravel by his own solo hand.

This album can be used for instruction and guidance as to other Ravel masterworks. The composer himself has a complete mastery of dynamics, of rhythm and rubato, of the piano as a seven octave instrument.

The "Pavanne for a Dead Princess" appeared clumsy to me at first - a bit too slow and without enough pedal. But "Oiseaux Tristes" more than makes up for that slight imperfection in my imperfect perception.

As for Bolero, it is orchestral. Laserlight does not specify which orchestra, which year or even whether Ravel was conducting. Nevertheless, it is pure and simple and probably closer to the intent of the composer than any other version I've heard.

I am especially grateful to Laserlight for providing me these rare performances of Ravel solo works and early Bolero. I've not seen them available anywhere else at any price.

This is a fantastic reproduction of the Composer's own renditions of some of his most famous piano pieces. My favorite is the Pavanne for a Dead Princess, one of the most haunting piano melodies ever written and one of the most difficult to play. The reason for this I understand is that Ravel had an enormous hand span that could reach all of the notes in the complex chords he writes. My own hand has to do several of the notes sequentially! The Pavanne I understand was played at the funeral of Marcel Proust--a great send-off.

Word has it that Ravel had another pianist record these piano rolls. Even if it were Ravel himself--who was no great virtuoso, by the way--these recordings were not restored or transferred with anything resembling care, nor is the piano used in the transfer a concert-worthy instrument. As for the orchestral recording of the Bolero, clearly this is an anonymous modern recording and has no connection to the composer.

Let's face it, this recording is being marketed as a historical document, and in that regard it has no value whatsoever. Why buy it?

credible. However, whenever a transfer is made from performance to recording or back, there is some loss. This is a good example. As much as I love the music, this sounds mechanical to me: I think the process that this was recorded by reduced the power of the recording. Perhaps this is just because I am a pianist, but the other reviewers seem to enjoy the album and seem very versed in music. In any case, my opinion, for what it is worth, is that it sounds like a player piano's playback of a great pianist's recording. (The orchestral Bolero is an exception, but there is a saxophone-sounding instrument that I believe comes out too strongly in the texture at one point.)

What I can read here is very surprising for me, a French musician in love with Ravel music for years. I must state the things to explain the mysterious title : Ravel is the name of the piano player, Ravel is the name of the composer, but they are TWO Ravel(s) ! As all the musicians from the Conservatoire de Paris know, Ravel was a piano player who won (in the fifties) several prizes and who was the homonym of the great French composer (who entered the Conservatoire de Paris a long time before : in 1889). If one takes a moment to ponder about the possibility of Ravel recording a "microsillon", there is a sort of anachronism... That is my first comment on Amazon (and will probably be the only one), and I write it not to unveil a mystery which is not one (only a problem of homonymy), but to say that this is an EXCELLENT record : the tempos (sorry, the tempi) are well chosen, and the interpretation of the Toccata (from the Tombeau de Couperin) is probably the best ever recorded. Why ? Simply because one can clearly hear the two wonderful parts of this masterpiece : the arpeggio here is not played in a rush but really articulated, exactly as Ravel intended to play it, and surely, as he played it (but he is playing it, through his homonym !). I strongly recommanded any Ravel lover to try to hear this wonderful interpretation of Maurice Ravel works by another man called Ravel. (Ravel is not an uncommon name in France ; I know two Ravel families, not related at all with Maurice, unfortunately).

The CD I got has 6 tracks, the first one being a anonymous modern orchestra playing Bolero.
The other tracks are supposed to be played by Ravel, but there's no mention whatsoever of the origin or dates of the recordings. There's instead factually questionable biography. So,as far as I'm concerned, the tracks could have very well been recorded by the producer's daughter on their living room piano.
There must be somewhere a more satisfying cd available!