Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937)
Piano Masterworks
Sérénade grotesque [3:33]
Jeux d’eau [6:03]
Sonatine [11:43]
Miroirs [30:58]
Gaspard de la Nuit [24:04]
Alessandra Ammara (piano)
rec. 28-30 November, 2012, Palazzo Chigi, Ariccia, Italy
ARTS MUSIC 47763-8
[76:21]
Wow. This is very frequently recorded music, Alessandra
Ammara is not a household name, and the cover art is a little chintzy,
so I did not expect much from this CD. Goodness was I wrong. Ammara
is a distinctive artist with a truly unique view of Maurice Ravel’s
piano music, and these interpretations are like no others. She takes
big risks, daring ones, and they may occasionally fizzle but they
still make this album stand out from the crowd. (Editor: Dominy Clements
was equally impressed by Ammara's Schumann - see
review).
Her
Jeux d’eau is comparatively slow but
has a beautiful soft touch; the play of the waves is water is
well-captured, and it feels like it is warm and glittering under the
sun. The
Sonatine, with little staccato touches but exactly the right air of perfumed classical-era elegance, impresses, and
Miroirs
does too. “Une barque” is unusually slow, but no less compelling for it
because Ammara displays such mastery of color and of the pieces dynamic
range; “Alborada,” by comparison, is as glittery as can be. The
highlights are the atmospheric, spare keystrokes of “Oiseaux tristes”
and “Les cloches,” which share a tendency with
Gaspard to have exaggerated dynamic pushes and pulls.
In
Gaspard de la Nuit, Ammara presents a very slow “Ondine” (7:30!) which really dedicates itself to the same kind of water imagery as one hears in
Jeux d’eau.
The climax is gigantic. “Le gibet” is the opposite of monotone: its
dynamic range is almost operatic, enough to probably thoroughly divide
listeners’ opinions. Most surprising is “Scarbo”, where, in the hushed
central passage (beginning 5:40), certain repeated notes stick loudly
out from the dark murmurings. There’s also a novel, clattering phrasing
given to certain chords at the climaxes. I heard details I’d never
heard voiced properly before, and although there are eccentricities
which give me pause, there are others which have haunted my memory for
days.
All in all, this
Gaspard is decidedly
eccentric, even weird, but to me utterly compelling. Other readings -
Sudbin, Schuch, Pogorelich - are this steely and forceful, but Ammara’s
feels like it has only just come out of the fire and still glows red.
She’s not authentic to the text, and is maybe over-the-top, but maybe
irresistible.
That’s true of her Ravel generally: even where it
steps out of orthodoxy, it’s irresistible. She’s a compelling artist
with a real, individual voice. I’d take this over Generic Ravel Album
#539 every day of the week, and at least for now I’m taken enough with
her gigantic, dramatic, even operatic way with this music to defend it
against any critic. This is a major release.
Brian Reinhart