This is the first complete set of Maurice Ravel’s solo piano music. It
includes both the unpublished early works, like
La Parade, and the
very published, but somehow forgotten, piano suite from
Daphnis et
Chloé.
Daphnis waited for its first-ever piano recording until
Vincent Larderet in early 2014, and now the second has arrived just months
later.
Completeness would not be very important if Florian Uhlig was not a
talented pianist. He is. Every interpretation here is, at a minimum, good,
with the best ones being considerably more than that.
Gaspard de la
Nuit improves as it goes: “Le Gibet” is stoic and the morbid bell
chimes steadily and insistently. “Scarbo” is dazzlingly fast and virtuosic
at 9:05, and full of spectacularly creepy, exciting playing.
Sérénade
grotesque is brash and flippant, and Uhlig’s
Daphnis is a
thrill ride, too. Can you imagine the savage pirate war dance as a solo
piece? It’s here, and it’s fully convincing.
Le Tombeau is a little less even. The prelude has weird swings in
tempo, and you become acutely aware of the slow-downs. But the fugue is an
admirable balance of impressionism and baroque clarity, and the final
toccata is a total thrill ride. Uhlig even manages to speed up for the
spectacular final bars. This will never be my favorite
Miroirs —
not even in the last few years; Herbert Schuch’s recording is spectacular —
but the literal approach which fails in
Les cloches actually does
fine by an unsentimental
Jeux d’eau. Uhlig also offers a quick,
rock-solid, neo-classical
Sonatine that favors energy over
daintiness.
Overall, I think Florian Uhlig is most at home in the big, virtuosic
music: Scarbo,
Daphnis, the slick — though not too showy —
La
valse. However there are no bad performances here, and only a couple of
average ones. In terms of completeness and audiophile sound, this is the
only serious choice for Ravel piano music. Artistically, Uhlig at his best
can compete with recent recordings by Bavouzet, Thibaudet, or Tharaud. Well
worth getting, especially if you have yet to hear the piano
Daphnis.
Brian Reinhart
Contents
CD 1
Jeux d’eau [4:54]
Miroirs [27:16]
A la manière de Chabrier [1:52]
A la manière de Borodine [1:27]
Pavane pour une infante défunte [5:40]
Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn [1:45]
Menuet [0:51]
Sonatine [10:40]
CD 2
Le tombeau de Couperin [23:21]
Prélude in A minor [1:24]
Daphnis et Chloé, fragments symphoniques [19:06]
La Valse [11:13]
CD 3
Gaspard de la nuit [21:26]
Sérénade grotesque [3:24]
Menuet antique [6:01]
La Parade [11:08]
Valses nobles et sentimentales [14:11]
