by Royal S. Brown
Part II: Ravel On Records
The piano music, the chamber music, operas, and vocal works
Concluding a discography that began in last month's HF.
THE PIANO MUSIC
Complete.
Walter Gieseking, ANGEL 3451, (three discs, mono).
Abbey Simon, Vox SVBX 5473 (three discs).
Of the Ravel piano music untouched by orchestration, the most famous is certainly Gaspard de la nuit (the title refers to Satan), a three-part suite written in 1908 and inspired by some rather morose poetic texts by Aloysius Bertrand. Gaspard has a reputation for being one of the most difficult piano pieces ever written, especially the final "Scarbo" movement; yet its difficulties lie not so much in the deliberate efforts of Ravel to write a piece requiring "transcendental execution" (although he did intend the work to be a finger-breaker) as in his attempts to exploit to the fullest extent possible the sonic potential of the piano while evoking, in the first movement ("Ondine"), the water (a favorite subject of Debussy's as well) and, in the last movement, the mystery and verve of the night-spirit Scarbo. Water is likewise the principal subject of the brilliant Jeux d'eau (1901), while the Miroirs (1905) reflect not only the water motif of "Une Barque sur l'ocean." but the butterflies of "Noctuelles," the birds of "Oiseaux tristes," the chiming bells of "La Vallee des cloches." and, once again, the Spanish element of "A lborada del gracioso." The more subdued Sonatine (1905), on the other hand, while still calling for some pretty flashy pianism, especially in the third movement, has a more mellow, sunny effect that counterbalances the noctumalisms of Gaspard and the alternately shimmering and moody evocations of Miroirs and Jeux d'eau. The Sonatine's general spirit also carries into the much later pieces of Le Tombeau de Couperin.
The piano music has been the object of numerous "complete" recordings, not one of which is truly complete; besides the fact that there are different conceptions of what "complete" means, some works remain unpublished (they will be performed by Arbie Orenstein this winter in New York). Ravel, in fact, composed at the piano, and all his orchestral works except Bolero were originally scored for the keyboard, either in solo, four-hand duet, and/or two-piano versions--and even Bolero was reduced by the composer (among many others) to a piano version. First of all, then, the following is a list of the piano music that has been recorded at one time or another:
1. Menuet antique (1895).
2. Les Sites auriculaires (two pianos): A. Habanera (1895; later used in the Rapsocle espagnole); B. Entre cloches (1896).
3. Pavane pour une infante defunte (1895).
4. Jeux d'eau (1901).
5. Sonatine, in F sharp minor (1905).
6. Miroirs (1905).
7. Rapsodie espagnole (1907; Prelude a la null. Malaguena, and Feria originally scored for piano duet, unlike the 1895 Habahera (two pianos).
8. Gaspard de la nuit (1908).
9. Ma Mere l'Oye (piano, tour hands; 1908).
10. Menuet sur le nom "Haydn" (1909).
11. Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911).
12. Prelude in A minor (1913).
13. Ala maniere de Borodine; Ala maniere de Cha brier (1913).
14. Le Tombeau de Couperin (1917).
15. Frontispice (1919; piano, four hands).
16. La Valse (1919-20).
The following, ranked in my order of preference, are the more or less complete albums.
The numbers after each recording indicate what works from the above list are contained in each set:
Walter Gieseking (on complete Angel set referred to above), 1, 3-6, 8, 10-14.
It is said that the keys of Gieseking's piano could be depressed by a gentle breeze floating by. and certainly, there is a lightness and delicacy to his performances of Ravel that will never be matched. Gieseking was able to ex press the full range of the composer's musical language, from the bareness of the 1913 Prelude to the vigor and energy of the Valves nobles et sentimentales, without ever resorting to pyrotechnics or overstatement, and each of his performances is a marvelous example of non-interpretative interpretation. Although the recording can be classified as "historic," the piano sound is quite acceptable.
Abbey Simon: 1, 3-6, 8, 10-14, 16. (The same Gaspard and Valses nobles et sentimentales included in the Vox Box listed above can also be obtained separately on Turn about 34397.) The brilliance of Simon's Ravel playing bears witness. I feel, to the theory that Ravel needs performers more than interpreters. Simon is known primarily as a technician--one of to day's most amazing virtuosos, from a purely pianistic standpoint. There is an evenness in his execution of fast passagework that is a joy to hear, especially in Ravel, since the waves of sound maintain their rhythmic character as well as the profile of their individual notes.
Furthermore, the suppleness and lilt of the rhythmic idiom is perfectly captured by Simon, especially in works such as Le Tombeau de Couperin, which, in this case. I slightly prefer even to the Gieseking version. Vox's sound is resonant and superbly realistic; the surfaces leave something to be desired. [See review in this issue.' Robert Casadesus (Odyssey 3236 0003, three discs, mono). 1, 2A (with Gaby Casadesus), 3-6, 8, 9 (with Gaby), 10-14.
The late Robert Casadesus, who benefits from bright, clear sound in spite of the recording's date, gives a particularly exhilarating performance of Miroirs. And throughout, the clarity of his playing perfectly highlights the music. Unlike Simon, however, he occasion ally indulges in virtuosity for its own sake, with some overly fast tempos and some rather clangorous chords on occasion.
Werner Haas (formerly on two World Series discs, PHC 2-001; now available only in Europe on Philips 6701 030). 1, 3-6, 8, 10-14.
Haas sins in the opposite direction from Casadesus in holding back a bit too much. But his beautifully controlled performances give the impression of that complete effortlessness that is an absolute necessity in any convincing Ravel performances.
Viado Perlemuter (Vox SVBX 5410, three discs. rechanneled stereo). 1, 3-6, 8, 10-14, plus the two concertos with Jascha Horen stein and the Orchestre des Concerts Colanne.
The Perlemuter approach to Ravel has many of the same qualities as the Haas, without the latter's sense of nuance. The concerto interpretations are quite worthwhile and are beautifully accompanied by Horenstein.
Samson Francois (Seraphim S 6046, three discs). 1, 3-6, 8, 9 (with Barbizet), 10, 11, 13, 14 Francois is fine if you like your Ravel fiery and filled with ear-opening, slapdash attacks. I don't. Francois's pacing is often exciting and apropos; but his impetuosity adds more weight than the music can take.
Monique Haas (Musical Heritage 1084-86, three discs). 1, 3-6, 8, 9 (with Ina Marika), 10-14.
I fail to understand how these stodgy, mechanical, ponderous, and totally wrong interpretations ever merited a recording.
In France, three other complete versions exist: by Jean Doyen
(Musidisc 737-39, three discs). 1, 3-6, 8, 10-12, 14; by Claude Helffer (Harmonia Mundi 922/24. three discs). 1, 3-6, 8, 10-14; and by Jacques Fevrier (Ades 4041/44. four discs), who with Gabriel Tacchino and Jean-Claude Ambrosini (for the "fifth hand" in Frontispice) does all the pieces in the list except the Rapsodie espagnole (7) and La Valse (16).
But that's not all, folks! Any number of good to excellent single recordings have been made of various of the separate pieces. Some of the best of these are as follows:
Rapsodie espagnole (2A and 7); Frontispice (15); "Entre cloches" (2B); Ma Mere l'Oye (9). Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky (DG 2707 072), two discs; with Debussy, two-hand piano music).
Definitive performances, including the only complete Rapsodie.
"Alborada del gracioso" (from 6); Valses nobles et sentimentales (11); Gaspard de la nuit (8). Alicia de Laroccha (Columbia M 30115).
De Larrocha's bell-like tone, her supple phrasing, and her remarkable lightness make this one of the best discs available of Ravel's piano music.
Sonatine (5). Ivan Moravec (Connoisseur Society S 2010; with Debussy piano works).
Moravec's velvety, smooth playing is perfectly suited to the subtleties of this unspectacular but thoroughly ingratiating piece.
La Valse (16), Valses nobles et sentimentales (11), Gaspard de la nuit (8). Ruth La redo (Connoisseur Society S 2005).
The solo piano scoring of La Valse (it also exists in a two-piano version), written out over three staves, contains too many complexities to allow any human being to maintain the pace this piece should have. But Laredo handles the work's staggering difficulties in an extremely convincing, beautifully recorded performance. Her renderings of Gaspard and the Valses are pleasantly subdued but lack a certain tension, and they tend to be over-pedaled (for my taste) here and there.
Gaspard de la nuit (8). Vladimir Ashkenazy ( London 6472; with Debussy and Chopin).
I particularly like Ashkenazy's hauntingly quiescent approach to the gloomy second movement, with its suggestion of a hanged body blown by the wind and of a bell hypnotically chiming in the distance. And his impeccable finger-work nourishes all aspects of the composition, even though a certain harshness and intransigence occasionally stand in the way of the music.
Infante defunte, La Vallee des cloches and Oiseaux tristes (from Miroirs), Toccata from Le Tombeau de Couperin, and Le Gibet from Gaspard. Maurice Ravel (Everest's Archive of Piano Music series X 912, made from piano rolls).
Unless you are dying of curiosity, there is little reason to investigate Ravel's own performances. These "interpretations" are marked by an unbelievably mechanical, sterile, and methodical playing.
Things to come: In addition to the final discs of the Pascal Rog complete Ravel piano mu sic, the first release of which contains good but somewhat Debussy-ized versions of the Voices nobles et sentimentales, the Sonatine, and Le Tombeau de Couperin (London 6873) [see re view in this issue). Entremont will do a complete cycle for Columbia, and a Ravel cycle by Laredo for the same company is apparently not an impossibility.
THE CHAMBER MUSIC--String Quartet in F (1902-3). Guarneri Quartet. RCA RED SEAL ARL 1-0187.
With the notable exception of Darius Milhaud. French composers have not ventured very far into the domain of the string quartet.
It might have been thought that the alleged austerity of the medium would not have suited the aesthetics of either Debussy or Ravel, yet their string quartets (one each) have become among the most popular in the repertory and are forever being coupled on the same disc.
The Debussy emphasizes the over-all sound of the strings and their inner workings, while the Ravel stresses line and rhythmic effect much more strongly. Not surprisingly, then, an out standing interpretation of the Debussy on the one side does not automatically imply a good Ravel performance on the other. This is the case for the Danish String Quartet (Telefunken 22541). The bloated, loud, and gratingly overstated efforts by the Via Nova Quartet (Musical Heritage 1211) present a perfect example of how not to play this piece.
Any number of very good discs have been made, however, in particular by the Juilliard (Columbia M 30650). Stuyvesant (Nonesuch 71007) and La Salle (DG 2530 235) Quartets.
If I have recommended the recently issued Guarneri Quartet version, it is because of the perfect tonal balance, in which the strong melodic lines do not run away with the work, and the ingratiating unpretentiousness of the group's highly musical conception (its Debussy, on the other hand, is much more mannered). If you want a good recording sans Debussy, the one by the Parrenin Quartet (Musical Heritage 1280) has just the right touch, in spite of some intonation problems, and it is coupled with a finely crafted rendering of the Introduction and Allegro.
Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet, and String Quartet (1905-6).
Osian Ellis, harp; Melos Ensemble. L’Oiseau LYRE 60048.
It is easy to see how the Introduction and Allegro and the Piano Sonatina were composed around the same period. Both have a relaxed, somewhat nostalgic character, even in their most energetic moments, and both make considerably stronger use of the midranges of the instruments involved than is Ravel's custom.
The Introduction and Allegro, however, has the additional advantage of broader instrumental color, and in few works does the com poser blend sonorities with such apparent calmness and ease.
The first Melos Ensemble recording, done for Oiseau Lyre, creates from the outset an al most dreamy atmosphere in which the separate instrumental lines and colors are nonetheless beautifully defined. The disc offers the additional advantage of containing the excellently played Debussy Sonata for Flute, Harp, and Viola and works--the Roussel Serenade. Op. 30, and the Ropartz Prelude. Marine et Chanson-that are rarely heard on record.
Nicanor Zabaleta's collaboration with the Paul Kuentz Chamber Orchestra (DG 139 304) features gorgeous playing and absolutely lush sound, and this disc as well offers excel lent performances of such attractive works as the Handel Harp Concerto in B flat, the Albrechtsberger Harp Concerto in C, and the Debussy Danses sacree et profane. But some how the whole effect of the Zabaleta version is just a bit too sumptuous.
Trio in A minor, for Piano, Violin, and Cello (1914).
Arthur Rubinstein, Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky. RCA LM 1119 (mono).
Time was when Schwann had a half-dozen listings for this piece. Now the only available recordings in this country are the rather dull one by Clara Bonaldi, violin. Paul Boufil, cello, and Sylvaine Billier, piano (Musical Heritage 1235), coupled with the Violin Sonata; and the well-recorded Rubinstein-Heifetz-Piatigorsky gem, which has the Mendelssohn Trio No. 1 as well. Yet the almost monothematic trio, with its mixture of poetic and musical forms (the scherzo second movement's forms and rhythms are determined to a large extent by a Javanese poetic structure, the Pantoum, while the third movement, for in stance. is a passacaglia), offers exceptionally fertile territory for exploration, and I would hope new recordings will eventually appear.
Rubinstein, Heifetz, and Piatigorsky offer convincing proof that there is no real reason for the superstars to avoid Ravel.
Sonata for Violin and Cello (1920-22).
Schoenfeld Duo. EVEREST 3243.
While not as acid and strident as the later Violin Sonata, the marvelous Violin and Cello Sonata, written in memory of Debussy, is a remarkable example of Ravel's ability to create depth of musical meaning with the simplest of materials, and the domestic availability of only a single recording of it by the Schoenfeld sisters, who play it well, is difficult to under stand.
Another chamber work, the short Berceuse sur le nom de Faure (1922), has not, to my knowledge, been recorded on these shores.
However, two discs containing it have recently been released in France, one by Carracilly and Barda, coupled with Ma Mere l'Oye, the Habanero for two pianos, and the Violin-Cello Sonata (Calliope 1821), and the other, which is much better played and recorded, by Kantrow and Rouvier, coupled with the Violin Sonata, the Tzigane, and the Debussy Violin Sonata (Erato 70789; may be released by Musical Heritage). The Everest recording of the Violin-Cello Sonata, by the way. also includes the Honegger Violin-Cello Sonatina and the Villa-Lobos Ch Oros-bis for Violin and Cello.
Sonata for Violin and Piano (1923-27).
Clara Bonaldi, violin; Sylvaine Billier, piano. MUSICAL HERITAGE 1235.
Perhaps the only works by Ravel revealing the cold, often acerbic musical style of the Violin Sonata are the weird Frontispice for piano duet and the extraordinary Trois poemes de Mallarme (see vocal music). To be sure, the Violin Sonata has a spirit of jocularity deliberately lacking in the other two works. But there seems to be a certain bitterness hidden in the Violin Sonata's frequent banterings-after a misleadingly lilting opening in the piano, for instance, the violin enters canonically in a shatteringly different key. and this polytonal harshness continually reappears throughout the work, even in the heavy blues writing of the second movement and in the runaway perpetuum mobile finale.
Since Wanda Wilkomirska's awful hamming-up of the sonata would be out of the running even if it were the only recording, the only one left domestically is the Musical Heritage disc. If the trio on the flip side lacks vitality, Bonaldi, who produces a lovely, simple, singing tone on her violin, and Billier give a vibrant account of the sonata, tastefully avoiding cuteness in the herky-jerky blues of the second movement and balancing their efforts quite well in the rest of the work, so that the violin never performs rape on the finely wrought lines as does Wilkomirska's.
OPERAS
L'Heure espagnole (1907). Jane Berbie, Michel Senechal, Jean Giraudeau, Gabriel Bacquier, Jose Van Dam; Orchestre National de l'ORTF, Lorin Maazel, cond. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 138 970.
Nothing could be more different in nature than Ravel's two operas, L'Heure espagnole, based on a rather insipid "Boulevard" sex farce by Franc-Nohain, and L'Enfant et les sortileges, which benefits from an ingenuous and yet at moments almost frighteningly surrealistic libretto by Colette. Although the orchestral accompaniment of L'Heure espagnole often has the same Hispanic dash that characterizes such works as the Rapsodie espagnole, with some delightfully ironic punctuation along the way, the vocal writing falls into a pattern of relatively uninteresting recitative in which the chief importance is given to the dullish text.
Suzanne Danco and Paul Derenne once recorded this one-act opera with Ansermet ( London A 4102, out of print). The only avail able version, however, is the Deutsche Grammophon disc, strongly conducted by Maazel and performed with appropriate spirit by the soloists.
L'Enfant et les sortileges (1920-25). Fiore Wend, Lise de Montmollin, Genevieve Touraine, Adrienne Migliette, Suzanne Danco; Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet, cond. RICHMOND 33086.
Infinitely more appealing and effective is L'Enfant et les sortileges, which is also in one act. In this opera, most of the main characters are inanimate objects that have come to life, diverse animals that sing their very own arias (including a delightful, caterwauling duet be tween two cats), or fairy-tale figures from the dreams of a seven-year-old enfant terrible, who, bent on destruction and having revolted against authority in his own way, suddenly finds himself in the midst of a nighttime dreamland in which everyday objects take on rather monstrous aspects. Both in its aesthetic and its sotto voce philosophy, the libretto of L'Enfant fits quite comfortably into the period in which it was written, which saw the birth of the Surrealist movement. Certainly, if the child eventually returns to the world of adults and order, the opera's primary light is focused on the surreal, of life lying beyond reality, a life in which the world of child, animal, and even death coexist in opposition to the elements of light and order, many of which are satirized in the opera (as in the characters of the old man and the numerical figures). From the opening instrumental theme, with its Oriental-sounding parallel fourths played in the high woodwinds, to the almost infinite variety of vocal styles, including the coloratura aria sung by the Fire, and the jazzy fox-trot sung by the English Teapot (this selection, in a purely orchestral version, can be heard on London Phase-4 21062, entitled "The Impressionists"), Ravel wrote a score of constantly shifting facets nonetheless unified by his al most uncanny sense of instrumental and harmonic color.
I much prefer the older version of L'Enfant on Richmond, with Fiore Wend as the child, to the recording done by Maazel and the ORTF Orchestra, with Francoise Ogeas as the child (DG 138 675). Somehow Maazel's more quickly paced conducting dulls some of the opera's sharply honed wit, and the singers as well seem particularly stodgy and humorless in comparison with those in the Ansermet version. And there is an effortlessness in Ansermet's vocalists that seems lacking in the more strained singing by the cast on the Deutsche Grammophon disc, which does benefit, however, from superior sound and stereophony.
SONGS AND OTHER VOCAL MUSIC
Scheherazade (1903). Regine Crespin; Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet, cond. LONDON 25821.
In these rather characterless songs, based on three pseudo-Oriental texts by Tristan Klingsor, Ravel comes as close as he ever did to sounding like second-rate Debussy. In spite of this, there is no denying the lyrical attractiveness of Scheherazade, and it is difficult to choose between the versions by Regine Crespin and the one sung by Jennie Tourel with Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic (Columbia CSP CMS 6438, with Berlioz' Cleopdtre). Crespin has a richer voice, and her articulation and phrasing are far superior to Tourel's (and London's recorded sound high lights Crespin's voice in a particularly appealing manner). But Tourel and Bernstein give greater shape to the melodic contours, which are especially rich in this work. Both recordings are strongly preferable to the performances by Baker/Barbirolli (Angel S 36505, with Berlioz' Nulls d'ete) and Danco/Ansermet (London STS 15155-56, two discs, with Honegger's King David).
Diverse Songs Trois poemes de Stephane Mallarme (1913); Chansons madecasses (1925-26) Janet Baker, mezzo-soprano; Melos Ensemble (Oiseau Lyre S 298; with Chausson:
Chanson perpetuelle; Delage: Quatre poemes hindous).
Cinq melodies populaires grecques (1907): Epigramnes de Clement Marot (1898), Histoires naturelles (1906); Chansons made casses: Deux melodies hebraiques (1914);
Don Ouichotte a Dulcinee (1932). Gerard Souzay, baritone; Dalton Baldwin, piano (Philips 839 733).
Histoires naturelles; Sur l'herbe (1907); Deus epigrammes de Clement Marot; Trois poems de Mallarme; Les Grands vents venus d'outre mer (1906); Ronsard ti son time (1924); Sainte (1896); Reyes (1927); Noel des jouets (1905). Jean-Christophe Benoit, baritone; Aldo Ciccolini, piano (Pathe CVB 2175; available from Peters in New York).
Trois Chansons (1915). Modern Madrigal Singers (DEsTo 6483; with Debussy: Trois chansons de Charles d'Orleans; Milhaud: La Naissance de Venus; Poulenc: Sept Chansons).
Ravel's best-known songs are probably the Chansons madecasses, with flute, cello, and piano in the accompaniment. Based on Madagascan folksong texts, the Chansons show per haps better than any other of his works a certain musical primitivism whose very raison d'etre is summed up in the words to the second song, which, after a kind of war cry, begins, "Beware of the Whites, who live on the coast." I prefer by far Souzay's interpretation of the Chansons to the others available, even though he is not in his vocal prime. However, on the recently released "Tribute to Jennie Tourel" album (Odyssey Y2 32880, two discs) the late soprano gives a particularly intriguing, chantlike rendition of the songs, and she also per forms (not as convincingly) the Vocalise.
The a cappella Trois chansons are of little interest, but they are nicely interpreted by the Modern Madrigal Singers on a disc whose main attraction is the other works it offers.
In spite of Janet Baker's rather colorless voice, her "French Songs" album is a must, as it contains what to my mind are some of the finest settings ever done of any poet in the Trois poemes de Stephane Mallarme, accompanied by two flutes, two clarinets, string quartet, and piano. Setting these extremely hermetic poems by the writer who epitomized both the philosophical and the structural preoccupations of end-of-the-century France, Ravel managed, with some of his most dissonant harmonies and coldest tone combinations, to musically capture the static, icy, obsessive ambience of the poet's vision while scarcely distorting the forms and contours of the verbal structures, almost impossible to set to music because of their own musicality. Benoit has also recorded the Poemes; but the songs have nowhere near the same impact when sung by a male voice. And I must admit that the almost sighing expressivity of Baker's performance, along with the quiescently atmospheric playing by the Melos Ensemble (conducted by Bernard Keeffe, in this in stance), is absolutely chilling in these Patties.
Benoit, whose voice does not impress me particularly, also performs a number of the separate songs, including the charming Noel des jouets, somewhat reminiscent of the Sonatine and based on a text Ravel wrote himself.
In the Souzay album, one of the most important pieces, in addition to the deliciously ironic Histoires naturelles, is Don Quichotte Dadcinie, whose three songs-representing one final turning toward Spain-are the last works Ravel wrote. I wish that somebody would record these songs with their orchestral accompaniment, which adds great depth.
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(High Fidelity, Apr. 1975)
Also see:
The Complete Nielsen Symphonies (review, HF mag Apr. 1975)
The Vanishing Louisville’s (HF mag Apr. 1975)