Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin

Double CD

Same Repertoire

Same Pianist

Old & New Instruments

The pianist Alexis Weissenberg also died in 2012. He made his breakthrough in Salzburg during the Karajan era and is now represented in the Salzburg FESTIVAL DOCUMENTS with his solo recital of 1972. His evening began with Ravel’s 'Tombeau de Couperin', played transparently and with a highly flexible touch. Even the technically trickiest passages of Schumann’s C-major 'Fantasy' were embedded organically and convincingly into the musical flow of the work.

Mussorgsky’s 'Pictures at an Exhibition' could hardly be played more effectively or with more colour than in Weissenberg’s interpretation. This work ended the 'official' part of his recital, though there followed many surprising encores, which can all be heard on these two CDs (for the price of one) and thus round off this memento of the artist.

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.

Following on the heels of its recent portrait CD of the Ensemble Pyramide (CDX21006), Divox presents another recording by the Zurich-based chamber ensemble. Suites Françaises unites arrangements of works by French composers whose paths crossed repeatedly, and are arranged here by the ensembles flautist, Mark Brönnimann. Debussy, Ravel and Pierné are the composers whose pieces convey a vivid overview of French music at the turn of the 20th century.

Highly acclaimed perfomances of Ravel’s solo piano music (Jeux d’eau, Sonatine, Tombeau de Couperin) by one of the world ‘s most popular pianists. The Piano Concerto in G performed by Helene Grimaud, with the RPO and Lopez-Cobos, provides accomplished bonus material. The Thibaudet performances have not been commercially available since the1990s.