Search - Tzimon Barto :: Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit; Miroirs; Jeaux d'eau

To Be Avoided

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 11/24/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Throughout his career Tzimon Barto has behaved like the boy in middle school who burps and farts to get attention, even though it brings down the disapproval of the teacher and quickly wears out its welcome with his fellow students. And he runs true to form in this all-Ravel disc that contains some of the most peculiar performances I've ever heard. It's not that Barto doesn't have technique. For instance he plays the extremely difficult 'Scarbo' in 'Gaspard de la nuit' as fast as I've ever heard it, although I must admit it goes so fast that the music's effects are blurred. In other passages he simply ignores Ravel's instructions. For instance, 'Le gibet' is marked 'sans expression' yet Barto swoons and swans his way through it. 'Ondine' is w-a-a-y too slow and has rhythmic instability as well. So much for the 'big piece' on the disc, 'Gaspard.'



'Miroirs' is a bit better, with a really effective 'Noctuelles'; the moths flutter desperately, but perhaps that's appropriate, who knows?. And 'Oiseaux tristes' has the right combination of sadness and languor. 'Alborado del gracioso' is simply wrong, with all manner of pauses and hesitations, uncalled-for emphases and, again, rhythmic chaos. 'La vallée des cloches' is actually better if a little slow for my taste. In 'Jeux d'eau', though, Barto's disregard of Ravel's fairly explicit markings is perverse.



Barto has great fingers, but he's not a good musician. I'm sure he prides himself on the originality of his conceptions, but they come across as arrogantly willful.



Scott Morrison"