| Ravel Piano Works. Jean-Philippe Collard (pf). French National Orchestra / Lorin Maazel. |
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| EMI (Full price) (CD) CDC7 47386-2 (65 minutes). |
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| Piano [Concerto] Concertos—selected comparison |
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| Roge, Montreal SO, Dutoit (3/84) 410 230-2DH |
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A clear front-runner in this coupling. Jean-Philippe Collard's accounts of the two Ravel concertos won the 1980 Gramophone Award and have held a special place in the catalogue ever since. In its new format this record offers more than 20 minutes of extra music, all drawn from the set of complete piano music that Path1e Marconi issued the following year. Since then, Decca have recorded the two concertos with Pascal Roge and the Montreal orchestra under Charles Dutoit, and their engineers produce the more detailed and open recording. However, the EMI is very good indeed and Collard has the more character and sparkle. (Roge produces a beautifully cultured sound in the slow movement of the G major but lacks bite and momentum in the Left Hand Concerto.)
The solo pieces—and the dazzling account Collard gives of La valse with Michel Beroff—are not quite so well recorded. EMI, I see, plan to reissue the Samson Francois in this coupling but good though his 1961 account of the Left Hand Concerto was, he does not match either Collard or Roge in the slow movement of the G major. Strongly recommended.
RL