Masters of the Piano Roll: Ravel plays Ravel

The contributions of Maurice Ravel to the 20th century piano repertory are a tender and expressive gift, standing out as some of the best examples of French Impressionist solo pieces from that time along with works by his contemporaries Debussy and Fauré. Since his early death in 1930, many performers have turned to his pupils - Vlado Perlemuter, and Marguerite Long expecting that they, with all their close contact with him, would be the most direct ...
...of strictness, lack of any kind of exaggeration, expression or imitation of past traditions, as though the piece is like an object to be guarded. However "Masters of the Piano Roil..." is primary evidence that flatly contradicts what they say - there are over 250 recordings of Ravel playing his own work (some of the best featured on this CD) and they are closer to the tradition from which he came than to that of Long and Perlemuter, who ... more

The contributions of Maurice Ravel to the 20th century piano repertory are a tender and expressive gift, standing out as some of the best examples of French Impressionist solo pieces from that time along with works by his contemporaries Debussy and Fauré. Since his early death in 1930, many performers have turned to his pupils - Vlado Perlemuter, and Marguerite Long expecting that they, with all their close contact with him, would be the most direct link to the man himself. They strongly emphasise the idea of strictness, lack of any kind of exaggeration, expression or imitation of past traditions, as though the piece is like an object to be guarded. However "Masters of the Piano Roil..." is primary evidence that flatly contradicts what they say - there are over 250 recordings of Ravel playing his own work (some of the best featured on this CD) and they are closer to the tradition from which he came than to that of Long and Perlemuter, who both wrote in the height of modernism in the 1950s when the aesthetic was different to Ravels time, instead of overly expressive it was now strict and formalist. What makes Ravel's own recordings fascinating are not only the difference in style, but also in technical accuracy- as Ravel's own technique was limited even though he did many public performances. Emile Vuillermoz is quoted to have said 'Maurice Ravel is continually bought out as a pianist or as a conductor, whilst he cannot possibly shine in either of these two specialties' and so many have dismissed his lyrical playing as bad and useless, when actually it shows many deliberate nuances that cannot all be mistakes.

Although Ravel's own piano skills do not match up to the pristine recordings of others such as Robert Cassadesus, they are a fascinating insight into how in space of 40 years traditions can change. Also they are not at all bad recordings, I myself would prefer to listen to his own style than that of a modern performer. It is much more exciting to hear how Ravel alters the rhythm in a free impressionistic style rather than others who play the written rhythms unaltered in a pure fashion. Another feature of Ravel's playing that is of great interest is the style in which he spreads all of the chords, even though this is rarely notated and more modern performers such as Cassadesus play them together as written. This gives the music a whole different lilting character, and creates subtle decorations in the music that we would not otherwise be aware of.

Perhaps these differences in styles were a result of Ravel changing his mind about the interpretation in the space of a few years and that is why there is such a lot of evidence to suggest that he taught strictness and did not pass on his own tradition, but surely people such as Long and Perlemuter have taken this idea too far. Performance practice has become so strict to the score nowadays that it is unheard of for a professional to allow the pulse to waver so much that the nature of the barline is changed, or to add grace notes that are not written. This CD highlights how many modern recordings are so rigidly formal that when we hear these pre-war performers we are in awe of their musicality, and as players try to emulate this expression inside a rigid frame of obeyed notation. I thoroughly recommended this CD to those who would like to hear Ravel in an authentically expressive style, even though it is different and contradicts other recordings, if you have never heard Ravel play his own music before it will transform your understanding of his music completely. 

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