MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW Plain text for smartphones & printers

Support us financially by purchasing this from

Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937)
Miroirs (1904-05) [28:17]
Pavane pour une infant défunte (1899) [6:14]
Gaspard de la Nuit (1908) [23:32]
Carlo Grante (piano)
rec. 2013, Studio Glanzing, Vienna
MUSIC AND ARTS CD-1289 [58:05]

Carlo Grante has built up a formidable catalogue of recordings on Music and Arts. I’ve admired his Scarlatti recordings in particular (review), which show great taste and a sense of appropriate style. He turns to Ravel in this hour-long recital with results that are very much less convincing.

Miroirs tends to sound tonally rather unyielding in this performance and there’s an occasional blatancy of articulation that lacks the trés leger qualities necessary for Noctuelles. This element, which can tend to the brusque, is also present in Oiseaux tristes, whilst his rather gimlet-eyed, unatmospheric Une barque sure l’océan keeps any sense of playfulness firmly at bay. This similarly can sap Alborada del gracioso of a potential for metrical freedom. In Grante’s hands there’s a certain inflexibility to the line, which ends up sounding predictable. And for all that he brings out the bell peals in La vallée des cloches, he tends – as Gieseking does not – to lose sight of the musical narrative that animates them. The result, though technically eloquent, is somewhat statically scenic.

Sadly I feel much the same, though perhaps to a less marked degree, about Gaspard de la nuit. A nagging feeling throughout this disc that a hardness of tone has been exacerbated by a too-close recording level resurfaced here. The accompanying voices in Ondine are very insistent and limit much sense of allure. There are similar concerns about a lack of rhythmic flexibility. Narrative and tension-building through tone colour are too seldom encountered – there’s certainly little sign of them in Le gibet. Add to this a strangely clip-cloppy performance of Pavane pour une infant défunte and I’m afraid this disc disappoints.

Jonathan Woolf

 

 



Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing