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Ravel at 150: Pavane pour une infante défunte · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Dissler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings.
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  As a lot of you know, I do not record this program in a professional studio, although
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  that's something I would love to do.
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  I record this in my New York home music studio and we are on the river and you hear the wind
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  against the windows when it gets very windy in the wintertime.
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  So for those of you who are asking, what is that strange sound if you do hear it on this
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  episode, that's the wind in the background and there's absolutely nothing I can do about
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  it.
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  I try to do some noise reduction, but at least you hear me talking.
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  So I guess that's good enough.
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  But anyway, you can subscribe to the Piano Maven podcast through my sub stack page by
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  clicking on the link in the episode description.
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  Paid subscribers get all kinds of bonuses such as piano maven zoom meetings.
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  We just had our first one in fact, and we share listening experiences and we will be
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  having special guests later on in the year.
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  So please do consider subscribing to help us reach out further into the piano community
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  and to keep this podcast in production throughout this year.
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  Over the past few weeks, I've been mulling over just what I should do to mark the 150th
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  birth anniversary of Maurice Ravel.
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  And you know, I kept tying myself up and not so I was thinking, well, maybe I should do
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  an episode devoted to complete cycles of Ravel's piano music on disk, or maybe make a list
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  for my ideal recordings for each Ravel piano work.
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  And I just kept going back and forth with ideas and I could not make up my mind because
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  there is so much Ravel out there in piano recording land.
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  And you know, for this anniversary year, there is so much stuff coming out.
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  We have that new Siong Jin Chou Ravel cycle on Deutsche Grammophon for which I wrote the
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  booklet notes.
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  And I still haven't listened to all of it yet.
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  Although my friend David Hurwitz did a really perceptive review on his video channel and
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  it's quite interesting what he says.
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  Also I've just started listening to the new Ravel cycle from Jean Eflam Bavouze, which
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  I'm going to be reviewing for Grammophon.
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  I'm actually thinking about doing a podcast episode where I compare both Bavouze cycles,
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  the earlier one he did for MDG in 2002 and the brand new one for Chandos.
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  I think that'll be kind of an interesting task.
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  However, for this episode, I finally decided that I would just stick with one short composition,
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  the Pavane pour une Infante Défunte.
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  I pronounced that really horribly.
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  Okay, so I'm just going to say it in English.
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  The Pavan for a Dead Princess.
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  The Pavan for a Dead Princess.
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  Ravel was 24 years old when he composed the Pavan in 1899.
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  And he chose its title mainly because he liked the alliteration it contained, if you pronounce
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  it in French.
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  Pavan pour une Infante Défunte.
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  Yet Ravel did admit that the music does evoke, quote unquote, a pavan that a little princess
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  once might have danced at the Spanish court.
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  After the work got its premiere in 1902 by the pianist Ricardo Víñez, the piece became
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  immensely popular, somewhat to Ravel's annoyance, although that did not stop him from orchestrating
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  it in 1910.
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  So as you can imagine, the Pavan has been recorded a gazillion times and I don't have all gazillion
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  recordings here in my collection.
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  Otherwise I would be out on the street, I guess.
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  So I'm just going to recommend a mere handful of recordings of this piece, recordings that
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  I like.
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  And I also will recommend one recording as a party record because it is such a vile and
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  perverse interpretation.
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  But I'm going to save that for last.
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  My favorite performances of the Pavan tend to be those that are simple and direct, performances
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  that maintain an ideal balance between the melody and the accompaniment.
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  So I guess in this regard, I can recommend without reservation the recordings of the
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  Pavan by Jean-Philippe Collard.
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  I can easily recommend Angela Hewitt's recording, the one on Hyperion.
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  And there was one on the Ivory Classics label by a pianist named Eric Heime, H-I-M-Y.
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  I kept this disc for a long time and I don't really know what's happened with this pianist.
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  But it's a wonderful performance because he brings the inner voices closer to the forefront
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  than in other recordings.
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  But he does it in a way that is very natural and it doesn't sound contrived.
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  Stuart Goodyear has a marvelous recording of the Pavan and he makes his interpretive
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  points through timbre and touch alone with careful dynamic gradations.
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  And I did listen to the new recording of Xiang Jin Chou, which I wrote the notes for.
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  I think it's beautiful and sensitive on the surface, but there may be too many little
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  manipulations of the line and self-aware kind of dynamic dips.
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  I mean, it's not micromanaged to the extent that some of his other interpretations have
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  been.
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  But I think it kind of lacks the directness and simplicity that I do hear from the Stuart
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  Goodyear performance or the Jean-Philippe Collard performance for that matter.
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  And it's the polar opposite of that rather dry and very straight-laced Robert Casadezou
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  recording from the early 1950s.
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  And I think that one almost goes too far in the other direction because it's literalism
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  that is just too matter of fact for my taste.
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  But it was kind of an antidote after hearing some of the more micromanaged versions.
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  Now you would think that Walter Gieseking in the Pavan would be similarly Apollonian
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  and straightforward and on the cool and matter of fact side.
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  Because Gieseking often could be that kind of pianist.
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  But his recording of the Pavan in his 1954 Ravel cycle for the EMI label uses a wide
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  berth of tempo fluctuation, but he does so tastefully and masterfully and in careful
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  proportion.
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  It's a very personalized reading, but it's one that makes you want to go back and listen
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  to it several times through because there's a lot going on there.
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  Now for something more like a funeral march than a Pavan, we have to turn to Sviatoslav
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  Richter.
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  His tempo in this piece has always been too slow for my taste, but his impeccable balances
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  between the hands and his mesmerizing legato articulation really hold my attention.
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  I'm talking about Richter in 1960 in his December Carnegie Hall and Mosque theater
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  recordings for RCA Victor.
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  These were professionally recorded and Richter really was in his prime in those years.
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  This is slow and purposeful Richter as opposed to the slow and boring Richter that you often
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  got in his later years.
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  Okay, so it is now time to reveal the party record version of the Pavan.
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  It's with the pianist Dejan Lazic on Challenge Classics.
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  He begins the Pavan with these horribly cloying staccato jabs and the accompaniment in the
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  left hand that sound like a caricature of Glenn Gould.
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  He mauls the basic tempo up and down and sideways and middle inside out and in all directions.
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  He exaggerates Ravel's dynamics to the point where the musical line just disintegrates.
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  It becomes deader than the dead princess.
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  I don't know if this pianist was sincere in his conception or misconception as it were
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  or if this was a case of deliberate sabotage.
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  This is a pianist who really knows better because he has made some wonderful recordings.
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  He has one of the best recordings for example of the Schubert B flat sonata, the possumist
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  sonata, Deutsch no. 960.
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  That's a marvelous recording.
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  So while I have your attention, I guess I should mention a few of my favorite orchestral
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  versions of the Pavan.
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  Maybe the best balanced and most transparent of all of them is the one with George Sell
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  and the Cleveland Orchestra.
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  But I also like the expansiveness and the vocally informed string pizzicati and the
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  beautiful first desk soloists in the recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Carlo
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  Maria Giuliani.
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  I just listened to that after not having heard it for years and I was thoroughly enchanted.
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  There is a recent version with the Basque National Orchestra under the direction of
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  Robert Trevino and this is just a gem and it is so gorgeously recorded.
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  Now of course you will have your favorite orchestral versions and you don't have to
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  write to me about them because I know that you know what they are, I know what they are
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  and we've all heard them.
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  I'm talking about the recordings of Cantelli in the Philharmonia, Seggio Zawa in the Boston
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  Symphony, Charles Munch in the Boston Symphony, the Jean Martinon recordings, the one with
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  his French Orchestra and also the one he did with the Chicago Symphony, Paul Parais in the
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  Detroit Symphony.
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  You know Paul Parais' recording is interesting because his first desk horn soloist has a
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  little bit of that Russian vibrato.
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  I'm kind of exaggerating.
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  Oh yeah, you know there's this unbearably slow yet not too shabbily executed, I must
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  admit, version with the RAI Torino Orchestra under Sergio Cellabedacchi.
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  You know of course you have to give it to Cellabedacchi for being slower than everyone
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  else in the world.
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  And his recording clocks in at around nine minutes.
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  Probably the piece takes about six minutes in the orchestral version.
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  Now I wouldn't say that this rendition is deader than the Dead Princess, but it definitely
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  depicts a princess who's been on life support for decades or maybe death support.
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  But I do appreciate your life support of this podcast and thank you for considering a paid
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  subscription to keep the Piano Maven afloat and supported.
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  And let's raise a glass to Maurice Ravel and let's wish him a happy 150th birthday as we
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  dance the pavon.
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  This is Jed Disler and you've been listening to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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  guide to piano recordings with a couple of orchestral recordings snuck in there today.
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  We will have more episodes about Ravel's piano music on disc this anniversary year.
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  You can count on it.
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  And also check out my episode from the first season of the Piano Maven where I talked about
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  Ivo Pogorelich and his recording of Ravel's Gaspard Alainoui if you haven't heard it.
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  That episode generated some interesting discussion among listeners and if you missed that episode,
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  maybe you'll find it interesting, helpful or even contrary to what you think.
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  Anyway, thank you for listening and I look forward to you and I being together for our
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  next episode of the Piano Maven.
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  Take care.