Ravel Alborada Del Gracioso

Josep Pons and Javier Perianes collaborate once again on a new album dedicated to Maurice Ravel entitled Jeux de Miroirs. The recording, released by harmonia mundi internationally on 29 November, features Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin and Alborada del gracioso for solo piano, their respective orchestrations and Piano Concerto in G major with Orchestre de Paris. These musical ​‘mirror effects’ allow us to compare the original piano versions of two key works by Ravel with the orchestrations he made of them. Alongside these, the Concerto in G major offers an example of how the composer combines piano and orchestra, both when the piano is integrated into the overall sound and when it plays its traditional solo role.

Maurice Ravel: Bolero; Alborada del gracioso; La valse; Daphis et Chloe; Raspodie Espagnole –
Schola Cantorum; Orchestre National de France; New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein
Classical | 1 CD | EAC Rip | 315 MB | FLAC+LOG+Cue | Full scans | RS links
Publisher: Sony Classical | Recorded: 1975 | Published: 1998

Editorial Reviews- Amazon.com
What a potent combo: Maurice Ravel and Leonard Bernstein. Boléro slowly comes to a steady boil without any ingredients overflowing. By contrast, in Alborada del Gracioso and La Valse, Bernstein thoroughly revels in his French orchestra's watery brass and silvery string tuttis. Back in Manhattan, the Daphnis and Chloé suite and Rapsodie Espagnol are lusty without ever sounding vulgar. Some might find the miking a hair spotlit for their tastes, but Ravel's breathtaking orchestration can withstand such scrutiny. So can Bernstein and company. An ingratiating release. –Jed Distler

Bernard Haitink's classically clear and direct approach combines élan, elasticity and, where appropriate, tremendous rhythmic punch – his readings of Boléro and La valse are volatile, yet thrillingly disciplined to the last. He brings a natural compulsion to the languorous eroticism of Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2, while his idiomatic handling of the earliest (and slightest) of these works, the Menuet antique and familiar Pavane pour une infante défunte, is equally beguiling. Haitink's painstaking attention to fine orchestral detail adds refined distinction to his Valses nobles et sentimentales and crystalline delicacy to both Le tombeau de Couperin and the more elusive Ma mère l'oye. There are few more vibrantly evocative, or palpably exciting versions of the Rapsodie espagnole and Alborada del gracioso. Don't be in the least surprised, however, if the phenomenal sound quality prompts an incredulous second glance at the recording dates quoted in the booklet!

The Italian conductor Claudio Abbado is one of the most outstanding conductors of the 20th century. It was his unique ability to make sound and music shine (Deutschlandfunk Kultur), for which he was celebrated internationally by both the press and the audience. In addition to his long-standing relationship with the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Vienna Philharmonic, he has also been chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra for many years (1979 to 1986), with which he has recorded a rich discography over the years.