Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major

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]

Nineteen year old British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor is internationally recognized for his electrifying performances and penetrating interpretations.

Following his highly successful debut album on Decca Classics (the youngest British musician to sign to Decca, and the first British pianist to join the label in almost 60 years) Benjamin will record his second disc featuring some of the foremost romantic piano concertos accompanied by the lush textures of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

A new recording with Riccardo Chailly, a top classical conductor, and Stefano Bollani, a top jazz pianist, following their phenomenally successful Gershwin Rhapsody/Concerto album. A new exciting programme focused on the magic ‘30s: a decade full of energy and creativity, in which several top classical composers were strongly influenced by such modern trends like jazz, tango and fox-trot.

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.

The exclusive Chandos artist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is a master of this repertoire. This is his second concerto recording for the label, after his survey of the complete piano concertos by Bartók (CHAN10610) which was released in September to high acclaim and voted ‘Orchestral Choice of the Month’ by the magazine BBC Music. Bavouzet’s complete recording of the piano music by Debussy also scooped awards from BBC Music and Gramophone, which wrote: ‘This could well be the finest and most challenging of all Debussy piano cycles.’ On this new release, Bavouzet is accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Yan Pascal Tortelier, a conductor steeped in the French tradition and utterly at home in this repertoire. The result is a totally idiomatic performance of these French masterpieces for piano and orchestra.

Ravel’s light and brilliant Piano Concerto in G major is the intriguing result of a merging of classical models with the idioms and harmonies found in the popular jazz music of his day. At the time of composing this concerto, Ravel had just returned from his travels in the USA and the work is heavily influenced by the jazz music that he encountered there. However, in the second movement Mozart takes precedence, the piano’s theme closely modelled on the slow movement of his Clarinet Quintet; and Saint-Saëns’s sparkling semi-quavers fill the finale. The first performance of this work, given by Marguerite Long in Paris, was a great success, as was the European tour that followed. Another central piece is Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. The work was commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, a concert pianist who had lost his right arm during the First World War. Although at first Wittgenstein did not take to its jazz-influenced rhythms and harmonies, he grew to like the piece. Speaking of the Concerto, Ravel said that he had been determined to make it sound ‘no thinner’ than one for both hands and noted that in the middle of the piece ‘innumerable rhythmic patterns are introduced which become increasingly compact’ and that ‘this pulsation increases in intensity and frequency’ before the various elements ‘contend with one another until they are brusquely interrupted by a brutal conclusion’.

Also featured on this disc is Debussy’s Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra. Debussy was a highly self-critical composer and disowned or withdrew several of his early works; this piece was one of them. It was composed in 1889 – 90, and its premiere was scheduled, under Vincent d’Indy, almost as soon as the score was completed, but withdrawn by Debussy just as it was being put into rehearsal. The first performance did not take place until after Debussy’s death in 1918. Although the Fantaisie is the lone piano concerto by a composer regarded as one of the greatest among those who wrote for the piano, it remains one of Debussy's least frequently performed works even now. The work shows the influences of Fauré and Franck, and the piano does not figure as a solo instrument in the conventional concerto sense but rather as an equal partner with the orchestra, although the conventional three movements are still present.

Completing the disc in a unique manner are six pieces for solo piano by Massenet. Most famous for his operas and suites for orchestra, Massenet wrote a quantity of very charming piano pieces, of which Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has selected some of the best. The music is typical of its composer – highly tuneful, richly textured, and utterly compelling – and conjures an atmosphere which only a Frenchman could achieve.

Magnetic, easy-going and delightfully articulate, Canadian pianist Ian Parker captivates audiences wherever he goes. An enthusiastic recitalist, he has performed across the United States, Western Europe, Israel and throughout Canada on tours with Debut Atlantic and Jeunesses Musicales du Canada. A stunning performance by both soloist and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Recording made in 2008.

Booklet notes.

Klára Würtz studied with Zoltan Kocsis and Gyorgy Kurtag, and received a scholarship from András Schiff for his masterclasses at Prussia Cove, Cornwall, UK. She has since performed widely in the North America and Europe When Bartók started work on his Third and last piano concerto in 1944, he was already ill, and in exile in the United States. The following year he died, leaving the concerto almost complete. His pupil Tibor Serly completed the final bars using Bartók’s instructions. The concerto was premiered in 1946 and was an immediate success. Unlike much of his earlier work, the Third concerto like the Concerto for Orchestra shows a more approachable and less modernistic character. The public had balked at Bartók’s spiky and percussive music, and the comparatively warm, almost wistful romanticism of the Third concerto provides an ideal introduction to the composer. The work is the summation of his close relationship with the concertos of the classical and romantic period composers he admired – Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt and Richard Strauss. Ravel was determined to write just one work in each genre, and if he ever deviated from his rule, the resulting work in the same genre contrasted greatly with its companion. His two piano concertos were composed around 1930. The Concerto for the Left Hand is a very challenging work for the performer, and the mood is predominantly dark and brooding. In contrast the Concerto in G was described by Ravel as a divertissement, and he said that Mozart and Saint-Saëns provided the inspiration. Allied to these influences is Ravel’s love of jazz which can be detected in the first movement and the finale which frame a serene and beautiful slow movement.