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Ravel: Piano Works
Maurice Ravel, Walter Gieseking
Ravel: Piano Works
Genre: Classical
 
  •  Track Listings (13) - Disc #1
  •  Track Listings (12) - Disc #2


     
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CD Details

All Artists: Maurice Ravel, Walter Gieseking
Title: Ravel: Piano Works
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Classica D'oro
Original Release Date: 1/1/1951
Re-Release Date: 9/4/2001
Genre: Classical
Styles: Chamber Music, Forms & Genres, Short Forms, Sonatas, Historical Periods, Classical (c.1770-1830), Modern, 20th, & 21st Century
Number of Discs: 2
SwapaCD Credits: 2
UPC: 723724147324

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CD Reviews

Exquisite Ravel; the greatest Fr. Impressionist interpreter
Island Reviewer | Alameda, CA United States | 12/20/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Geiseking is widely and justifiably rated the best interpreter of French Impressionist music. There has been much written about Geiseking, his politics, and his playing, but all you have to do is listen to know that his was an extraordinary talent. He was famous for his use of pedal and perfect control of dynamics and tempi to create the mood and shading that makes his French Impressionist music come so to life. His playing on this album is like water turned into notes; limpid, textured, subtle, exquisite in every way. The first time I heard this album I listened for hours. It was as if Geiseking was in the room, talking to me. Under his perfectly controlled hands (and feet on the pedal) the Pavanne for a Dead Princess, a classical "Greatest Hits" warhorse, comes to life like a living woman awakened by a kiss. This is one of those life-changing albums that make you weep from gratitude that you live in the era of recorded music. After you hear it you are not the same. Geiseking was associated (probably through complete political naivete -- he was notioriously single minded about music) with the Nazi party during WWII. As a result, after the the war his career was in tatters and he was a broken man. All who have heard both his recordings (such as this one made in the 1950's) and his pre-war live performances say that the recordings capture only the shadow of the greatness of his playing. If that's true, then I don't think I could have survived one of those performances. Buy this CD and keep it with you at all times in case you get stranded on a desert island."