FREE UK SHIPPING OVER £30!

Ravel - Erard versus Steinway ’Compared’

Label: Channel Classics

Cat No: CCSSA31612

Barcode: 0723385316121

Format: Hybrid SACD

Number of Discs: 2

Genre: Instrumental

Release Date: 12th November 2012

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Works

Ravel, Maurice

Gaspard de la nuit
Le Tombeau de Couperin
Menuet antique
Sonatine

Artists

Paolo Giacometti (piano)

Works

Ravel, Maurice

Gaspard de la nuit
Le Tombeau de Couperin
Menuet antique
Sonatine

Artists

Paolo Giacometti (piano)

About

"This recording raised the same question as all previous ones: should I use an authentic or a modern piano? At home I have a Steinway, on which I learnt to play, and it is a wonderful instrument. When I was about twenty I was fortunate enough to get to know authentic instruments: romantic grand pianos by Érard and Pleyel and older ones by Graf, Streicher etc. This was a new world of timbres and expressive potential. Naturally, I took the inspiration and revelations provided by these instruments to the modern grand piano.

A stimulating cross-fertilisation of expressive and interpretative possibilities was the result. In this way it became increasingly natural for me to play the same repertoire on both old and new instruments. In my desire to share this fascinating cross-fertilisation with others, I found the answer to the above question: a double CD with the same works on authentic and new instruments.

This is particularly interesting in the case of Ravel, since the two types of instrument not only existed in his lifetime, but were actually used by him. The 'new' instrument used for the recording is a Steinway. 'New' is in inverted commas because the Steinway grand has hardly changed since the late nineteenth century.

The authentic instrument on this CD is an Érard - one of the most celebrated makers of the nineteenth century, and immortalised by Liszt. Ravel frequently gave his recitals on a Steinway, while at home he used an Érard when composing..."

Sound/Video

Paused

1

Gaspard de la Nuit - Ondine (Steinway)
2

Gaspard de la Nuit - Ondine (Erard)
3

Gaspard de la Nuit - Scarbo (Steinway)
4

Gaspard de la Nuit - Scarbo (Erard)
5

Sonatine - Modere (Steinway)
6

Sonatine - Modere (Erard)
7

Le Tombeau de Couperin - Toccata (Steinway)
8

Le Tombeau de Couperin - Toccata (Erard)

Europadisc Review

Following on from his widely praised recordings of Rossini, Schubert and Schumann, Milanese pianist Paolo Giacometti here explores some of Ravel’s greatest works for the instrument. What we actually get is two recordings (nearly for the price of one), for whilst the second disc is played on a ‘standard’ Steinway concert grand, the first features exactly the same music performed on a grand piano made by the French firm Érard in 1888, a 90-key ‘Extra Grand de Concert’. The results are utterly fascinating.

Giacometti talks in the liner notes about his discovery, through playing ‘authentic’ pianos by Érard and others, of ‘a new world of timbres and expressive potential. Naturally I took the inspiration and revelations provided by these instruments to the modern grand piano.’ The resulting ‘cross-fertilisation of expressive and interpretative possibilities’ is evident throughout both these discs.

Érard’s instruments, with their unmistakable gently percussive timbre, were favoured by great composer-pianists from Beethoven to Liszt, and Ravel — who often played on Steinways in public — used an Érard when composing at home. However, the Steinway concert grand has barely changed since Ravel’s time, so it is arguable that both instruments here are in a sense ‘authentic’.

Yet inevitably it is the Érard that is most illuminating. From the outset of the opening Sonatine, there is a magically translucent, crystalline quality to the piano’s sound, heard at its best in the quieter music (which in Ravel means most of the time), with exceptionally well-defined bass tones which never overpower, and clearly defined, characterful textures. The delicate filigree opening of the Tombeau de Couperin has rarely sounded quite so keen as here. Only in the occasional louder, climactic passages is there a tendency for the textures to blur. There is also a sense throughout the Érard disc of being transported back in time and place, with the result that Ravel’s music — even the 1895 Menuet antique — emerges as far more breathtakingly radical than is usual. (A similar feeling emanates from some of the better recordings of late Beethoven on period fortepianos.)

On the Steinway disc, Giacometti’s speeds are generally a degree faster. Whether that is a result of the different touch of the instruments, a different response on the part of the pianist, or the simple fact that the recordings were made a year apart, is unclear. (It’s easy to imagine that the Érard’s very distinctive timbre invites the player to dwell just that shade longer on sonorities.) Certainly the Steinway offers a ‘cleaner’ sound (try the opening of ‘Le Gibet’ in Gaspard), but it is also warmer and more blended, more redolent of the concert hall than of the composer’s study. Yet character still abounds, for Giacometti’s touch is light, agile and unerring in its feeling for the music’s varied moods, its many twists and turns.

In a competitive field, Giacometti’s extraordinarily fine and sensitive playing would ensure that either of these discs on its own would be an exceptionally strong contender. Together, they are an absolute must, and will surely be among the top recordings of the year.