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Ravel: Complete Piano Works | 
 enlarge | Creators: Maurice Ravel, Jean-efflam Bavouzet
Label: MD&G Records
Category: Music
List Price: $34.98
Buy New: $25.45
You Save: $9.53 (27%)
New (18) Used (2) from $25.45
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 46383
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 760623119021
EAN: 0760623119021
ASIN: B0000C4EXA
Release Date: January 20, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Ondine | | • | Le Gibet | | • | Scarbo | | • | Modere | | • | Mouvement de Menuet | | • | Anime | | • | Noctuelles | | • | Oiseaux tristes | | • | Une barque sur l'ocean | | • | Alborada del gracioso | | • | La vallee des cloches |
Disc 2
| • | Prelude | | • | Fugue | | • | Forlane | | • | Rigaudon | | • | Menuet | | • | Toccata | | • | A la maniere de Borodine (Valse) | | • | A la maniere de Chabrier (Paraprhase sur un air de Gounod) | | • | I. Modere - tres franc | | • | II. Assez lent | | • | III. Modere | | • | IV. Assez anime | | • | V. Presque lent | | • | VI. Vif | | • | VII. Moins vif | | • | VIII. Epilogue. Lent |
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| Customer Reviews:
Exquisite and brilliant treatments of Ravel's piano writing January 24, 2008
Doug - Haydn Fan (California)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
There is very little to add to most of the reviews. These performances capture to a remarkable extent the wistful elan and intellectual precision of Ravel's marvelous creations.
Highest marks.
The main reason for reviewing this set is to remind everyone of the bargain available: Samson Francois in two CDs playing Ravel for under fifteen dollars! I'm surprised no one mentions him any more. The Francois performances are very different from these modern ones and offer far more impressionistic and poetic readings. They make a charming additional set in such glorious music. (See my review) I would urge lovers of Ravel's piano music to at least consider adding them (The Francois set), especially at the price, before buying another of the several far more expensive fine modern performances.
Ravel's Complete Piano Music August 15, 2007
Amy
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
There was always a rivalry between Ravel and Debussy disputing about who took priority in musical discoveries, but Ravel's music was entirely his own, as was the grand virtuosity of much of his piano music from this period, notably the cycles Miroirs and Gaspard de la nuit. Ravel was known for being a perfectionist composer, painstaking about detail. Which is why it is said that his output of music is relatively small yet exceedingly high in craftsmanship and musical quality. It may surprise people to know that Ravel's total output for solo piano spans just over 130 minutes which is all on this 2 cd set played by the outstanding soloist Jean Efflam Bavouzet. Ravel's earliest piano works are dominated by impressionism and in 1901 Ravel composed the first ever impressionist work for piano with Jeux d eaux which translates to Fountains. The work brought Ravel great success and on this cd Jean Efflam Bavouzet does an amazing job of portraying Ravel's images of the music and sounds of fountains, waterfalls and streams. In 1899 Ravel composed his celebrated Pavane pour une infante defunte, which was written as a portrait of old Spain with a sensuous Debussian flow imposed on an old dance form. The Pavane remains Ravel's most popular composition especially in his 1910 orchestration. Composed in 1905, for a competition conducted by a music journal, the three movement Sonatine is acknowledged as one of Ravel's finest piano compositions. Bavouzet is particularly impressive in the surging passion of the first movement and the nervous feeling of the finale. At nearly thirty minutes Miroirs from 1905 is Ravel's largest piano work and also arguably his most daring as he entered a new phase of development. Bavouzet skilfully moves across to this freer and more varied style with more extended developments. Ravel uses five pieces which are designed to reflect their subjects, inspired by images as mirrored in sound. Soloist gives a sensitive performance of different color tones in Ravel's musical description of the changing sea in Une barque sur l ocean. Bavouzet's delicate playing is impressive and compelling in the famous Alborada del gracioso. Originally intended as a musical tribute to the harpsichord music of Francois Couperin le Grand the celebrated Le Tombeau de Couperin was Ravel's final work for solo piano. Ravel was to dedicate this set of six pieces to honor his friends that had died in the Great War. Ravel was further affected by the death of his mother and at this time Ravel was inspired to compose three pieces for piano by the poems of Aloysius Bertrand under the collective title of Gaspard de la Nuit. In this fantasy world of gnomes, elves and ghosts the first piece of the trilogy Ondine reproduces the sound of water. Le Gibet is a musical portrait of the gallows and the final piece Scarbo is an ironic scherzo representing a world of nightmares. Bavouzet is one of the best Ravel interpreters out there and to get all of Ravel's piano music in a 2 cd set is great. Bavouzet makes the technical demands sound easy and provides a spontaneous, almost improvisatory feel of this hauntingly beautiful music.
5 Stars, outstanding performance November 29, 2005
paul best (new orleans)
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
I have to concur with Steiger's opinion of Bavouzet's understanding of Ravel's incredibly difficult music. Bavouzet has certainly accomplished bringing out nuances that no school can teach, as both the tech's and the poetic are balanced perfectly on this recording.
Refer to my review of Pascal Roge in Ravel, which is another exceptional recording.
Also Alexandre Tharaud makes a 3rd definitive recording.
you ask "how can there be 3 definitives?" It is possible as each has mastered all aspects of this wonderful music.
EDIT:
I just heard Bavouzet in the Le Tombeau de Couperin. Before I knock his aweful translation of this work made best for orch and NOT piano solo, I need to say I heard Tharaud's clips (my copy is lent out) and from Roge and Jacques Rouvier, all 4 pianists take the opening to Le Tombeau too fast for my taste, and then in other movements none really capture my attention. I really do not care for any of the 4 pianists in Tombeau. Now for orch version I love it immensely. Martinon and Skrowaczewski.
Ravel, the genius and flowering of the romantic tradition.
Paul
EDIT: Been listening to Bavouzet's recording past 2 days (yes slight addiction) and find thisartist to have a incredible sensitivity to this extremely difficult music. Strage that i have FOUR 5 Star recordings, Roge, Bavouzet, Rouvier and Thauard. All masterfully recorded. And in piano music that I love with a intensity beyond words. Ravel without doubt wrote the most amazing and beautiful music for piano. If I reincarnated in a 1000 yrs from now, the music would still hold the same TIMELESS beauty as it does for the past 20 yrs and will til death.
Paul Best
June 8, 2008
Exquisite Ravel January 20, 2005
Richard Steiger (Murray, KY USA)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
No matter how many recordings of Ravel's piano music you have, you owe it to yourself to hear these beautiful performances by Bavouzet. The first thing you'll notice is the piano itself, a 1901 Steinway, not as smooth and rich in tone as the current pianos, but remarkably clear, capable of the most subtle nuances of touch, full of character, and perfectly suited to Ravel's piano music. Bavouzet's performaces balance ardor and restraint. His might be termed "classical" (as opposed to "romantic") Ravel, but he never sounds cold or mechanical, as some pianists do in this music. Tempi are well-chosen throughout, though there are a few surprises (the Forlane in "tombeau de Couperin" is faster than I've ever heard it. I prefer a somewhat slower tempo, but Bavouzet makes a case for his sprightly interpretation). Bavouzet's "Gaspard de la nuit" is at once grotesque and poised, and his dignified performace of the Pavane reminds us that Ravel insisted that he wrote a Pavane for a Dead Priness, not a Dead Pavane for a Princess. The sound of these cds is beautifully balanced, allowing every subtle nuance of Bavouzet's playing to register. If you love Ravel's piano music as much as I do, you will definitely want to add these discs to your collection.
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