RAVEL COMPARED / Elaine Greenfield, Piano / Review

RAVEL COMPARED

Elaine Greenfield, Piano

Navona Records NV 6401 (2 CDs)

 

This is a very interesting recording and listening experiment: a piano recital performed twice, on two different period pianos with the results compared and contrasted. The subject is the piano music of Frenchman Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), whose relatively small output for the instrument may be conveniently classified in two broad categories: neoclassical and impressionist works. A fair selection from each has been included by American pianist Elaine Greenfield in two recitals of an identical programme running just over an hour each.   

 

The two pianos are an Erard (1893, Paris), the same model as one owned by Ravel himself, and an Ivers & Pond parlor grand (1917, Boston) from a now-defunct American manufacturer. Both pianos were in existence during Ravel’s lifetime, now privately owned in Massachusetts and New York respectively. The Erard has a softer edge and mellower tone, and able to sustain longer resonating notes. Performances are generally slower than those on Ivers & Pond with one notable exception: Ondine from Gaspard de la nuit. The 10-second differential (8’36” compared with 8’46”) and added reverberance gives Erard the nod here.

 

For neoclassically inspired pieces like Pavane pour une infante defunte and the Sonatine, one prefers the more detached and “dryer” sonorities afforded by Ivers & Pond. Similarly, the Spanish dance rhythms of Alborada del gracioso from Miroirs should always sound nippy, so the 20 seconds gained on I&P is an advantage. Alborada should not play for 8’08” (Erard); contrast this with Dinu Lipatti’s 5’48” in his classic Columbia recording. The converse holds true for the impressionist hues of Oiseaux tristes (also from Miroirs), which is more alluring on the Erard. One wished for the inclusion of the classic water piece Jeux d’eau, and imagine what Greenfield could have done with it.   

 

In Valses nobles et sentimentales, eight waltzes inspired by Schubert, honours are more even as both pianos have their merits in these dances of varied moods. Still, the slightly speedier account on I&P holds greater interest on repeated listening. Finally, the coruscating Toccata from Le Tombeau de Couperin is slowish (5’47” and 5’31”) and enervating on both pianos, when other performances clock in under 4 minutes.

 

While Greenfield’s sensitively nuanced and somewhat cautious performances may not displace established favourites by Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Pascal Rogé (both on Decca), Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (MDG), or oldies like Walter Gieseking (Warner) and Robert Casadesus (Sony), these are still worth listening to. The exercise of comparisons also makes for an absorbing parlour game for inveterate pianophiles.

 

You may sample / purchase this album at:

Ravel Compared – Navona Records