RAVEL Piano Concertos
YUJA WANG, Piano
Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich
Lionel Bringuier
Deutsche Grammophon 479 4954 / ****1/2
Both of Maurice Ravel's piano concertos were composed around the same period, between 1929 and 1931. While these are vastly contrasted works, both are united by one common thread: the influence of new world jazz, particularly the use of syncopated rhythms and the blues idiom.
The G major concerto in three movements is characterised by unusual orchestration and the unlikely juxtaposition of Basque music and Mozartean simplicity. The D major concerto in one movement is the world's best known work for the left hand alone. Its central jazzy march episode has a similar insistent quality that can be found in Ravel’s infamous Bolero, and it culminates with a massive cadenza before the end.
Chinese phenomenon Yuja Wang performs with a lightness and mercurial quality that serves the music well, especially in the scintillating runs and volatile climaxes. The woodwind solos by members of the Swiss orchestra in both concertos are excellent which help put these performances in the top drawer of CD recordings.
As a filler, Wang includes the solo piano version of the Ballade by Ravel's teacher Gabriel Fauré, a highly lyrical work that belongs to an earlier era, that of the more innocent Belle Epoque. Wang cuts a glamourous figure, but what has baring her midriff for the album cover have to do with this music?
BRAHMS. SCHUMANN. MAHLER
Piano Quartets
Daniel Hope, Violin et al
Deutsche Grammophon 479 4609 / ****1/2
The piano quartet, formed by piano, violin, viola and cello, runs the risk of becoming almost obsolete. That is because many composers opt for the smaller and more economical forces of a piano trio, or plump for the fuller sounds of a piano quintet. This well-filled disc from live concerts of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centre gathers three of the best piano quartets in the medium’s relatively small repertoire.
Gustav Mahler's Piano Quartet in A minor (1876) is a student work in a compact single movement. A far cry from his monumental symphonies, it is a product of late Romanticism with full-blown passion and pathos on display. Robert Schumann's Piano Quartet in E flat major (1842) is shorter and less well-known than his Piano Quintet. There is a Beethovenian touch with its masterly development of simple themes, and is graced by an exquisitely beautiful slow movement.
Johannes Brahms's Piano Quartet No.1in G minor (1861) is an established classic, symphonic in scope and closes with a rowdy Hungarian-styled Rondo in the best gypsy tradition. British violinist Daniel Hope and his partners, violist Paul Neubauer, cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han, are vividly recorded, making this album one to remember and treasure.