Ravel: Sérénade grotesque

Alice Ader’s first Debussy disc (Erato) won all the awards in the specialist press on its release twenty years ago and is still regarded as an unequalled benchmark. Now this unconventional pianist at last unveils her recording of the complete Ravel piano works.

And what better moment could there be than Debussy Year to present these two hours or so of music in dialogue, en Miroirs as it were, with the oeuvre of ‘Claude de France’? Ravel, the hot-blooded Swiss watchmaker, the discreet Lisztian, the mediocre pianist who made such extreme demands on his colleagues, the man of so many sublime paradoxes, deserves only the finest interpreters: those who take the time to explore his deepest recesses. Alice Ader, light-years away from the flashy gestures often encountered in this music, takes us to the very heart of one of the most secretive composers of his time.

“this is beautifully detailed playing throughout. And a fine balance of just that clarity and colour, elegance and lyricism, that I was talking about right at the beginning. That’s why, of these three excellent new recordings, this is the one I would personally buy.” BBC R3 CD Review

New releases of Steven Osborne’s best-selling discs have become some of the most eagerly-awaited events in the pianophile diary. This most delicate and subtle of musicians also displays a pyrotechnical deployment of digital acrobatics, mesmerising colour control and breathtaking articulation. All these qualities are visible in this two-disc set of some of the most important piano music of the early twentieth century. Ravel’s works have been central, too, to Steven Osborne’s performing repertoire throughout his career, making this set a perfect marriage of composer and performer.

Maurice Ravel, while famous for his orchestral scores, and acknowledged as one of the great orchestrators also produced some of greatest piano works of the 20th century. Although he was no more than a fair pianist, his scores abound with very clear and precise instructions on how the work should be played – dynamics, tempi, phrasing and expression all must be clearly adhered to if the performer wishes to avoid coming to grief. These instructions brought him into conflict with some artists – including Toscanini, but most notably with his friend Ricardo Vines, who said that to play ‘Le Gibet’ from Gaspard de la Nuit as Ravel instructed would bore the audience to death. ‘I do not want to be interpreted, I want to be played’ was the uncompromising answer.

These 2CD contain his entire output for solo piano, from the early Serenade grotesque of 1892, through the masterpieces Gaspard de la Nuit, Valse nobles et sentimentales, and La Valse to his last piano work, Le tombeau de Couperin from 1917.

These 2CD contain his entire output for solo piano, from the early Serenade grotesque of 1892, through the masterpieces Gaspard de la Nuit, Valse nobles et sentimentales, and La Valse to his last piano work, Le tombeau de Couperin from 1917.

This is a reminder that Angela Hewitt doesn't only play—or record—the music of Bach, as she has already shown us with her disc of Messiaen, issued a couple of years ago. Here, in this 2CD set, she gives us the complete solo piano music of Ravel. (And, unlike some of the others on the market, this really is complete, containing as it does the very early, 1893, 'Sérénade grotesque', discovered comparatively recently.)

Miss Hewitt's elegant and poised playing-style familiar from her Bach recordings serves her especially well in the piano music of this fastidious French master.