COMPOSERS: Ravel
LABELS: Virgin
WORKS: Le tombeau de Couperin; Miroirs; Valses nobles et sentimentales; Gaspard de la nuit, Sonatine
PERFORMER: Anne Queffélec (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: VBD 5 61489 2 Reissue (1992-3)
First time around, Queffélec’s cycle became my recent favourite. It still is. Others such as Thibaudet may surpass it for incisive brilliance, but Queffélec makes the piano sing warmly while locking on to the music’s subtly voiced sense of direction. These performances hold together with an expressive strength the greater for Queffélec’s unforced tone, spacious even when quick, like the Prelude of Le tombeau de Couperin. The same suite’s Forlane, more typically, reveals shades of lyrical feeling in music that just sounds spiky if it goes too fast. Gaspard de la nuit even gains excitement from the long-sighted approach. Don’t miss. Robert Maycock
Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin; Miroirs; Valses nobles et sentimentales; Gaspard de la nuit, Sonatine
First time around, Queffélec’s cycle became my recent favourite. It still is. Others such as Thibaudet may surpass it for incisive brilliance, but Queffélec makes the piano sing warmly while locking on to the music’s subtly voiced sense of direction. These performances hold together with an expressive strength the greater for Queffélec’s unforced tone, spacious even when quick, like the Prelude of Le tombeau de Couperin. The same suite’s Forlane, more typically, reveals shades of lyrical feeling in music that just sounds spiky if it goes too fast.
Our rating
5
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:17 pm