Ravel Piano concertos?

[prokanninov]

How difficult are the Ravel Piano concertos?

[cziffra]

astonishingly so- i've heard and read the g major and i wet myself  

[anda]

the left hand one is very (especially if you have small hands), the other is pretty easy

[MikeLauwrie]

No I think that they are both hard, I haven't played the Gm one myself but I've seen it played at close quarters! It looked pretty hard. Ravel is notorious for writing stuff which is harder than it sounds!

Mike

[anda]

No I think that they are both hard, I haven't played the Gm one myself but I've seen it played at close quarters! It looked pretty hard. Ravel is notorious for writing stuff which is harder than it sounds!

Mike

no, it's not! it looks (and sounds) very difficult, i agree, but read it and you'll see for yourself! it's the kind of concert you can learn within a week

[zhiliang]

I would like to take this opportunity to ask you for your opinions on which recordings of the Ravel Piano Concerto in G should i get?

I have heard these 3 recordings from the library.

1. Michelangeli on EMI with Ettore Gracis which i have read often on reviews that its one of the greatest recording of this piece. To me after listening to it a few times round, besides the tonal colours and supreme technique always associated with him, i felt there was too much of an attention to details rather than the big line. Though the outer movements are highly charged with virtuosity and excitement.

2. Phillipe Entremont on Sony, i do not have much of an impression on it.

3. Krystian Zimmerman on DG, my favourite recordings among the 3 that i ahve heard. Wonderful articulation and clarity and i found the 2nd movement especially lovely and touching.

Anyone care to share their feelings on these few recordings or any others that are recommendable.

How about the recordings by Marguerite Long, Martha Argerich, Leonard Bernstein, Alicia De Larrocha, Samson François? Anyone would recommend anyone of them?

Zhiliang

[zhiliang]

I would like to take this opportunity to ask you for your opinions on which recordings of the Ravel Piano Concerto in G should i get?

I have heard these 3 recordings from the library.

1. Michelangeli on EMI with Ettore Gracis which i have read often on reviews that its one of the greatest recording of this piece. To me after listening to it a few times round, besides the tonal colours and supreme technique always associated with him, i felt there was too much of an attention to details rather than the big line. Though the outer movements are highly charged with virtuosity and excitement.

2. Phillipe Entremont on Sony, i do not have much of an impression on it.

3. Krystian Zimmerman on DG, my favourite recordings among the 3 that i have heard. Wonderful articulation and clarity and i found the 2nd movement especially lovely and touching.

Anyone care to share their feelings on these few recordings or any others that are recommendable.

How about the recordings by Marguerite Long, Martha Argerich, Leonard Bernstein, Alicia De Larrocha, Samson François? Anyone would recommend anyone of them?

Zhiliang

[ravel]

The Martha Argerich recording is  really good as well.
Also, try the samson francois recording with andre clutyens,  it is really nice and different .
i have also heard pascal roge s  and werner haas recording, both of which were good,
i think argerich and francois do the best job on this one.

[BURavel]

I haven't toched the left hand concerto, but the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G is rather difficult.. I'm working it up for competition in the fall. It's not Scarbo or anything but it requires a lot of effort for me at least. Like much of Maurice's music, it's highly complex but doesn't come off as bombastic.

Believe it or not, my favorite concerto recording is Herbie Hancock's performance of the "Adagio assai" from the Concerto in G on his "Gershwin's World" album. It's really breathtaking. Alicia de Larrocha has a good recording out with the St Louis SO and Bernstein's version is also excellent.

[cziffra]

i'd just like to say that after hearing the g major, i really liked ravel, and then after jhearing la valse, he became one of my favourite composer's.  the concerto gets better every time i hear it- i can't wait to be able to see it live.  it, like most of ravels work, is an amazing piece of orchestration- it's almost unbelievable what he can do.

[trunks]

Ravel is difficult in general, especially for sight-readers, and both his concertos are no exception. Ravel produced some of the most complex yet freely flowing and lovely melodies but fiendishly hard to read because of the sheer density of notes - just behold the cadenza of his Concerto for the Left hand, what an awesome thing to look at (and listen to!). And that is Ravel's unimitable signature.

Ravel is a pleasure to listen to but not friendly to the eyes at all. Perhaps that is the fault of the music publishers - curiously they have a knack of printing most of Ravel's notes in what I call "microscopic type". Or was that the composer's own intention?