Ravel Piano Duo

David Grimal and Georges Pludermacher’s sonata recital for Ambroisie begins auspiciously with a reading of Debussy’s Sonata that casts shadows without obscuring detail. Grimal’s hazy timbres, on the 1710 ex-Roederer Stradivari, pervade the first movement, but he achieves laser-like clarity in the upper registers, especially near the end. In the second movement, violinist and pianist alternate playfulness with throaty protestations of poignant yearning. Beside this performance, David Oistrakh’s sounds downright monochromatic. The duo slithers almost menacingly through the finale’s sultry passages. Throughout, Pludermacher reveals himself as a strong-minded exponent of Debussy in his own right…

In 1928 Maurice Ravel described the violin and the piano as “essentially incompatible.” Yet, by then, he had already composed for those instruments two sonatas (one of which was published posthumously), Tzigane, and the Berceuse sur le nom de [Gabriel] Fauré - a miraculous output for a supposedly mismatched duo.

Patricia Kopatchinskaja & Fazıl Say - Beethoven Ravel Bartók Say (feat. violin Patricia Kopatchinskaja, piano Fazıl Say) (2008)
EAC Rip | FLAC +CUE + LOG | 294 MB | no scans
MP3 | CBR 320kbps | 154 MB
Classical/Piano/Strings/Chamber | Label: Naive | 67:21

The young and trendy duo of Moldavian violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Turkish pianist Fazil Say rips deliriously into a highly enterprising program as if tomorrow were a chancy affair. It’s more than their hearts that they wear on their sleeves; they lay out their emotional guts in a dazzling display of virtuosity and breathtaking musical entertainment. At one moment in Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” sonata, Kopatchinskaja’s racing along, clipping eighth notes in a furious rush to the finish; at the next she’s finding aphrodisiacal sweetness in a simple, two-bar ritardando. Say follows a pounding accompaniment with a phrase of sudden elegance worthy of the slow movement of the “Emperor” Concerto. In Bartók’s six “Romanian Folk Dances,” Kopatchinskaja sometimes rips her pizzicati with destructive force, sometimes plucks lyrically with wonderfully expressive grace. Perhaps she doesn’t throw off Ravel’s pretty little Sonata with enough casual cool, but in Say’s 13-minute Violin Sonata, she captures all the magic of its moonlit beauty.

Accompagné par l'orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, le pianiste français renouvelle l'approche de ces deux concertos. Bon nombre d'interprètes en avaient en effet donné une interprétation de plus en plus épaisse et romantique, ce qui est en contradiction avec l'écriture de ces oeuvres, davantage inspirées par la légèreté et le modernisme de "l'esprit français" des années 20-30. Le jazz, si présent dans le Concerto pour la main gauche, par exemple, est révélateur de la pensée de Ravel. Le piano de Duchâble est plus que brillant : il est incendiaire, volatile, merveilleusement aérien. La qualité de la tenue rythmique, le sens des contrastes, l'humour, si souvent présent chez Ravel, sont magnifiquement restitués.