Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales

Arthur Rubinstein (1887–1982) was one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. After brief studies with Paderewski in Switzerland in 1903, Rubinstein moved to Paris, where he met Ravel and Dukas, and played Saint-Saëns’s G minor Concerto to the composer’s approval. He made his debuts in the USA in 1906 and London in 1912. He was a superb performer of Chopin and his 1960s recordings of nearly all Chopin’s solo piano music have been considered essential to any record collection since their release.

He was also a formidable interpreter of Spanish music.

Rubinstein became a naturalised American citizen in 1946, but he maintained residences in California, New York, Paris and Geneva. After the Second World War, he refused to perform in Germany, in response to the Nazi extermination of his Polish family. Rubinstein became a strong supporter of Israel with an international piano competition named after him in 1974. His honours included the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society of London, the US Medal of Freedom (1976), and membership of the French Legion of Honour.

This is a rare live recording of Rubinstein made by the BBC in 1963. It has only recently been discovered in the National Sound Archives.

It has never been issued before in any format.

The recital contains repertoire by composers that were closely associated with the pianist: Chopin, Ravel and Beethoven. Rubinstein’s temperament had sufficient fire for Beethoven but enough poetry for Chopin; his tempos and dynamics were always flexible, but never distorted.

Rubinstein’s recording of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No.2 on ICA Classics (ICAC5003) was a Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’, with Rubinstein’s playing praised for its ‘legendary charisma and indelible individuality’.

A tribute to Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, a veritable mythic and unpredictable Italian pianist,; a perfectionist with a carefully chosen repertory in which Scarlatti's works joined those of Debussy and Ravel, while the great German romantics, from Beethoven to Brahms, were magnified and exalted, showing the soundness of their construction. The number of his recordings is limited, with mostly works by Debussy and Ravel and a few by Beethoven. He used to buy pirate live discs of his concerts as presents for his friends instead of his 'official' recordings! Here is a French anthology collecting legendary renderings of his inimitable touch easy to recognise by its ductile nature and the purity of his style. A revived masterpiece.

Recorded Live May 22 1960 London [Gaspard, Concerto], February 12 1952 [Valses], June 3 1960 [Debussy]

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.

1CD+1CDR

Recording Country: United Kingdom

Recording Location: 7-8 July 1981, Abbey Road Studios

Mix Date: 1 Jan 2000

Producer: Suvi Raj Grubb

Balance Engineer: Christopher Parker

Digitally remastered at Abbey Road by Allan Ramsay.

Source: CDC 7471692

“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

Freddy Kempf has previously recorded ten highly acclaimed solo discs for BIS, of which the latest (BISSACD1820) was described by Gramophone as “a formidable programme formidably played… This is “live” virtuosity with a vengeance, with absolutely no hint of a safety net”.

Rachmaninov’s Corelli Variations is inspired by the theme used by Corelli in his violin sonata La Follia which undergoes a radical pianistic treatment taking it through all the sonic and atmospheric possibilities offered by the instrument.

With his celebrated transcription of Bach’s Chaconne, Ferruccio Busoni had a very different aim, wanting to shed new light on the work without actually changing it.

Ravel’s collection of waltzes was composed as a nod to Schubert and in it Ravel shows the range of his musical palette.

Stravinsky’s Three movements from Petrushka is the composer’s arrangement of music from his own ballet, commissioned by Arthur Rubinstein.

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.