Ravel: Ondine & Scarbo from "Gaspard de la Nuit"

[electrafingers]

Hello everyone,
Please tell me what you think. This was recorded in a live concert.

Ondine -> http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=570105&T=8956
Scarbo -> http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=569803&T=9103

[allchopin]

Fantastic - thank you for the goosebumps. 

[nanabush]

Wow your crazy, ya gooesebumps, scarbo is absolutely insane.

[rob47]

First of all it is COLLOSAL!!!!!!  Your interp is mind blowing!!!

I guess my only suggestion is try to be more original? (if possible with what you've already done).  I've heard many recordings of this, Pogolreich, argerich etc.  and your's has affected me just as much as their's!  you're scarbo is an incredible, very well thought out performance.  Clearly you've got legendary chopz    So my only suggestion is experiment even more with the tone colours and INSANE technique RAvel has offered you!!

F****ING INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Excellent work!

[electrafingers]

Hey, thank you very much for your comments. I'm really glad you enjoyed it!

[BoliverAllmon]

great playing. My friend recently asked his teacher if he could play ondine. After catching his breath after laughing so hard, he "politely and emphatically" said, "No." I am going to play your recordings to show him why the teacher laughed so hard. Great examples. Keep up the good work.

boliver

[lauralouise]

it wont let me play it....i dont know why

[nanabush]

I saw on another thread that scarbo was in some top ten list for most difficult overall pieces for solo piano...is there an actual list?  If so what else is on it?

Once again as I said earlier, awesome playing, incredible!  I listened to it again a few minutes ago.

[electrafingers]

Thanks again I don't know about a list, but I know that when Ravel wrote this piece it was meant to be the most difficult for piano solo, replacing Balakiriev's Islamey.

[nanabush]

Replacing Islamey, interesting, they both sound extremely difficult, and are both quite long.  That's kinda funny, was that his only purpous in writing Scarbo?  And was Ravel inspired to write the Gaspard de la Nuit?  I tried finding info but found only poems with the same titles as his pieces, and they were kinda creepy, was he inspired by these poems?

[electrafingers]

Ravel was introduced to the poems of the French poet Aloysius Bertrand by his friend Ricardo Viñes, and he chose three pomes (Ondine, Le Gibet and Scarbo) to write his work for piano after. I think they are quite interesting actually. Anyway Ravel was apparently fascinated by them and decided to call his work "Gaspard de la Nuit", after Bertrand's book "Gaspard de la Nuit: Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot", although only Ondine is an actual part of the book; Le Gibet and Scarbo were taken from a different book by Bertrand. Ravel's music is surely inspired by the poems, but obviously he added much out of his own imagination.
Ravel has told Maurice Delage, his friend and pupil, that he wanted this work to be of transcendental virtuosity, and that he wanted it to be more difficult than Balakirev's Islamey, which was known as the most technically difficult piece for piano at the time. But I think none of this matters, these pieces are probably not the most difficult ever written, as difficult as they are.

[ajw400]

Electrafingers, this is a very fine recording. I appreciate very much the clarity in your sound and your ability to play so musically, really - and this is from someone else who also plays these pieces. IMHO Ondine is sometimes played with too much rubato, but that was not the case here.

On a very, very high level, though, I would have two ideas about Ondine that are reflected in my performances that maybe you'd like to play around with. 1. In a hall with good acoustics, the glissandi need no crescendo at the top - they are devastatingly effective if extremely quiet and atmospheric and you can finger the very top of the first one for clarity if necessary. I use the fleshy part of my hand to make an even less notey and better texture. 2. The very last arpeggio figure sounds much more like the opening figure if, starting on the bottom G# in the right hand, you use the fingering 1 2 5 1 2 5 ... that way you get the same rhthmic groupings as the beginning and if you try it, it is extremely easy to make a very interesting sound.

But enough of my opinions.... I would like to know more about you - how old are you, do you have recordings out for me to buy? You sound amazing!!!

[electrafingers]

Hey ajw400, thank you for your kind words. I am a 22 years old student and I don't have recordings of me to buy, but I am flattered by the thought

Both your ideas sound interesting, and I should check them out some time.

[pianote]

what did you use to record yourself? the clarity is amazing

[orlandopiano]

Gorgeous playing. You are very talented!

[electrafingers]

It was recorded using professional equipment in our school, with a professional sound man, though it didn't go through mastering and no changes were made.

[pokeythepenguin]

I loved the Ondine ^^  Honestly sounds like a professional playing.

[techlogik]

Wow...that was nearly legendary...

[electrafingers]

Hey guys I got new recordings of these pieces, also from a live concert. here they are:

Ondine -> http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=673697&t=4961
Scarbo -> http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=673689&t=5423

Listen and comment if you like
ciao

[teresa_b]

FABULOUS!  Let me know when you're going on tour.

Teresa

[JP]

Beautiful performance. Congrats!

[crazy for ivan moravec]

THEY DIDN'T SOUND LIKE PIANO!!!!!

THEY DIDN'T SOUND LIKE PIANO!!!!!

THEY DIDN'T SOUND LIKE PIANO!!!!!




- and that's what's GREAT  about it!  

am also 22 years old and there's no way i could play like that!

congratulations!

[crazy for ivan moravec]

btw, i also heard ur schumann symphonic etudes! great playing!

[electrafingers]

hehe thanks crazy, what did they sound like?

[JP]

heh I'm also 22...  I'm glad you guys arent teens playing Proko and Ravel like that..

[crazy for ivan moravec]

hehe thanks crazy, what did they sound like?

yep, nothing sounded like piano at all. they were images, impressions, imaginations at play!
wonderful!

i once had a masterclass with this filipino Reynaldo Reyes (studied with Marguerite Long in paris conservatoire) with the Reflet dans l'eau of Debussy, and he said that almost everything should not sound like piano, except measures 57-60. colors! colors! colors!

[rachfan]

An absolutely astonishing and fantastic performance of Scarbo!  I was blown away by it.  Just extraordinary.  I could listen to your playing all night. 

[jakev2.0]

Metzuyan. 

[counterpoint]

rachfan, thank you so much for bringing up this old thread!

I never heard such a beautiful piano playing in my whole life - it's a miracle.


And now guess, who won the 1st prize in the

Newport International Competition for Young Pianists 2006

The Final took place on Saturday 14 October with each of the three finalists performing a Concerto accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Jac van Steen.
Congratulations to this year’s winner Ishay Shaer!

Ishay performed Chopin’s Concerto No 2 in F minor, op 21

http://www.newport.gov.uk/_dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=riverfront.whatson&contentid=CONT055166

[rachfan]

Hi counterpoint,

I agree--this is a highly impressive performance!  If you haven't already done so, you can also listen to "Ondine", the first piece of Gaspard de le nuit, which she also recorded and posted here.  It's over on page 3 now.

[jakev2.0]

Haha, I think Ishay is a dude. The name Yishay is Hebrew for "Jesse" who was a King - also the father of the famous King David. 

[rachfan]

Hi jakev,

Thanks for correcting me on the name gender issue.  It's embarrassing to make an error like that, although it's not a name you see often.     At least the record has been set straight.   

[imbetter]

Wow i cant believe u pulled this off!

I started learning this. I could learning this but I'm going to put it off due to its difficulty

BTW this is Ravels only useful piece

[steve jones]

Wow, thats amazing! Welldone my good man.

Im 25 and battling like crazy with the easier Chopin Etudes. So its not really for me to comment on your playing, other than to say I enjoyed it very much indeed.


Imbetterthenyou,

Mate, are you insane? Ravel's only useful piece???

I think that question was rhetoric... 

SJ

[elevateme_returns]

..al


wow!! fabulous playing!! if there is anything to say about it it would be that i think there are slight misreadings at both of the big climaxes - in the 1st one (C bass) you play Eb on the second of the two chords each time - it should stay as e natural.  and at the 2nd climax (B bass) on the second chord each time you play D natural whereas it should stay as D sharp.

hope those comments help - fantastic playing!!


elevateme's scarbo...       ....coming soon.....

[frederic chopin]

rachfan, thank you so much for bringing up this old thread!

I never heard such a beautiful piano playing in my whole life - it's a miracle.


And now guess, who won the 1st prize in the

Quote

Newport International Competition for Young Pianists 2006

The Final took place on Saturday 14 October with each of the three finalists performing a Concerto accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Jac van Steen.
Congratulations to this year’s winner Ishay Shaer!

Ishay performed Chopin’s Concerto No 2 in F minor, op 21


http://www.newport.gov.uk/_dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=riverfront.whatson&contentid=CONT055166

Electrafingers,

Congratulations and well done! I could have easily gone to support you as it is only 40 minutes away from where I am!

[fnork]

I just listened to Ondine, played it myself recently. Beautifully played, a very refreshing interpretation, and good balance between accompaniement and melody - one of the real difficulties with this piece, I think.
As I wrote in my own "Ondine thread" (it's somewhere in the Audition room), my former teacher studied with Vlado Perlemuter, who studied Ravels complete works with the composer. Ravel was very careful about details in his works and could work with Perlemuter on a single bar in a simple valse for an hour, making him play it over and over again until he got it right. If there's anything I think you could work on more (because you have all the technique and colour you need for the piece), it is to take a closer look at what's written in the score and avoid adding too much to this. This might sound boring for an interpreter, but why not be an open window for the music on the score? Remember what the composer said: "One should not interpret my music, one should realize it." One last thing, which I also wrote about when I posted my "Ondine" recording, is that I prefer a somewhat slower tempo where all accompaniement figures can be heard clearly and evenly - almost the clarity you need for a Mozart sonata. Try to imitate how a harpist would play these arpeggios.

Well, I shouldn't say too much because you play this far far better than I do! Any advice for practicing the double-note passage before the climax? I've always found it really hard to pull off, started practicing Chopins op 25 no 6 to improve thirds, hoping it could help.

[gruffalo]

I found Ondine to be so much greater after listening to Daphnis et Chloe. I think it shows you whats really going on in Ravel's mind. With pieces like Gaspard, he made the piano sound so different. i agree with trying to create that harp-like sound. when i play through ondine, i imagine all the sounds that i heard from Daphnis et Chloe. it gives interesting results.

EDIT: this may sound like utter nonsense, but this is what is going on in my head when i hear or play this piece.