Slippedisc daily comfort zone (75): When you gotta go

Slippedisc daily comfort zone (75): When you gotta go

Daily Comfort Zone

norman lebrecht

July 13, 2021

Maurice Ravel plays his Pavane for a dead princess more movingly than any orchestra.

Comments

  • Edgar Self says:

    A woman who played it in his hearing wasn’t so lucky. “No, madame, you have not understood. It is the princess who is dead, not the pavane.”

  • John Borstlap says:

    It sounds as if he has difficulty reading the score.

  • E says:

    “Allant,” and not at all sentimental. What a revelation.
    Thanks for posting, also with this photo.

  • Joel Levine says:

    The bass note at 4ā€™59ā€ is not in the orchestra version, even though this passage is the same as an earlier one where the bass note is included.
    The only recording I know that inserts it is Boulez/Cleveland.
    I spoke to their head librarian. The note was removed after the recording session.
    The missing note seems to be a mistake and Iā€™m surprised no one has had the courage to fix it besides Boulez.

  • Edgar Self says:

    This “Ravel” recording sounds like a piano-roll. I think some rolls attributed to Ravel were made for him by others and issued in his name. This one is a little heavy-handed with a too prominent left hand and marked ritards at several phrase endings.

  • David K. Nelson says:

    Joseph Szigeti wrote, in his autobiography, “It is probably my intense admiration for Ravel the composer that causes my subconscious to blue-pencil my memories of Ravel the pianist!”

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