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Alicia de Larrocha's 1969 Columbia Ravel Disc · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  you This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  Consider taking out a paid subscription to The
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  Piano Maven, where paid subscribers get a free
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  download at the beginning of each month, and
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  your support helps to keep this podcast going
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  throughout the year. It was in 1969 that Alicia
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  de la Rocha made her first and only recording
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  for Columbia Masterworks, which became CBS Masterworks
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  later on, and then it became Sony Classical.
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  Now, there were releases with this pianist on
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  Columbia's subsidiary label, Epic, but these
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  were all licensed from the Spanish Hispavox label,
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  as was a 1958 recording of the Albania's Iberia
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  Suite that... appeared on Columbia in a 2LP set
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  in mono. But the one recording for Columbia proper
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  was a Columbia production, kind of an outlier.
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  And it was produced by Andrew Kasdan, who...
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  probably is best known as Glenn Gould's producer.
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  And this disc featured music of Maurice Ravel.
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  So far as I know, it's never been reissued on
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  CD outside of Japan. Certainly it never came
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  out in the United States on CD, as far as I know.
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  It's an interesting disc. And it features the
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  triptych Gaspard de la Nuit, the Valse Nobel
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  et Sentimental, and the Alborada del Grazioso
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  from the suite Miroir. Technically speaking,
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  Alicia Delaroche's fingers can do. anything.
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  Just listen to Alborada del Grazioso. I mean,
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  her articulation is just scintillating and so
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  centered and so pointed. And I know it's a cliche
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  and I use this line a lot, but you can really
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  take dictation from this playing. I find the
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  central episode, the slow music. a little languorous
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  for my taste, but it's a very, very enjoyable
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  performance. And in fact, I heard her play this
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  live at what was then Avery Fisher Hall back
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  in 1982 at a recital where she was playing mostly
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  French music. She was playing Poulenc and Ravel
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  and Debussy, and then there were some Granados,
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  but that was a very, very memorable recital.
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  In Gaspard de all of the utter clarity of texture,
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  one often loses a sense of the long line, and
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  you get not so much waterways as you get elaborate
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  mosaics. And this is especially true about Andine.
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  And in the other two movements, in Les Gibets
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  and Scarbeau, I wish that the piano sonority
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  was not so astringent and hard -hitting. miss
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  the warmth and the luminosity that I hear in
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  other recordings of Gaspard that have become
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  the reference versions, like Ivo Pogorelich and
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  Martha Argerich and Benjamin Grosvenor is pretty
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  wonderful. In the valse nobelle et sentimentale,
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  I kind of like the more languorous than usual
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  look at certain of the movements and the variety
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  of character that Alicia de la Rocha gets from
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  one section of the piece to the next. Some listeners
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  might prefer a more direct and reserved approach.
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  And in fact, her remake in 1993 for RCA, I find
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  to be far lighter in texture and much more supple
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  and much better recorded. Also, you just have
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  to compare the introduction alone between the
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  Columbia and the RCA recordings. It's like night
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  and day. But still... The sheer authority and
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  the personality of Alicia Delaroche's pianism
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  comes through in this Ravel recording. So if
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  you can find a copy of it without breaking the
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  bank, perhaps you will find it as fascinating
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  as I do. This is Jed Disler, and you've been
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  listening to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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  guide to piano recordings. I look forward to
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  being with you for our next episode, so take
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  good care.