Debussy; Ravel - Music for Two Pianos (Vladimir & Vovka Ashkenazy)

Information

Composer: Claude Debussy; Maurice Ravel

• Debussy - En blanc et noir
• Debussy - Jeux (arr. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet)
• Debussy - Lindaraja
• Ravel - Entre cloches (from Sites auriculaires)
• Ravel - Rapsodie espagnole
• Ravel - La Valse

Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano

Vovka Ashkenazy, piano

Date: 2009

Label: Decca

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Review

There is only one word necessary to review this disk: magnificent.

This is fantastic stuff; Ashkenazy père et fils let loose on French piano music. Marvellous. En blanc et noir is fiendishly difficult both to play and to “bring off” in performance. Here there is a real swagger to the first movement, the swirling lines simply flash past in a headlong rush, but every line is as clear as you could want. The slow movement evokes the war and contains bugle calls and a reference to the chorale Ein’ feste Burg; the Ashkenazys paint a bleak and devastated landscape which is just about perfect. The final scherzando has a restraint to it. Roger Nichols, in his excellent notes in the booklet, suggests that perhaps Debussy was aware of his own impending death. Whatever, this performance shows an understatement which is breathtaking.

Jeux was written for Diaghilev and was premiered two weeks before Le Sacre du Printemps. The furore caused by that latter event has, over the years, caused us to forget Debussy’s work. I have to confess that Jeux has never really spoken to me. True, it’s orchestrated superbly, has some real highpoints but, overall, I find the work unsatisfactory. Perhaps the elusiveness of the music goes against it ever becoming really popular with audiences. This version for two pianos is by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, no slouch himself at the keyboard - indeed, a friend of mine heard him recently playing the Ravel Left Hand Concerto in London and declared it to be the best performance of that work he’d ever heard (in over 45 years of concert going) - and it is very successful. It’s interesting that at no time did I actually miss orchestral colour, and this is a very sensuous score. I’m still not won over to the score but this performance, and arrangement, go a long way to explaining to me what it is all about. Rather cheekily, Bavouzet has retained the part for suspended cymbal at the beginning and end. It is just right within the context of the arrangement.

Lindaraja is probably Debussy’s response to the habanera in Ravel’s Les sites auriculaires for it employs the 3+2 2+3 rhythm of the Spanish dance. It’s a lighter piece and a nice foil for the complexities of Jeux.

Les sites auriculaires - Roger Nichols suggests Places to put your ears as a fair translation) consists of two pieces, an habanera (which became the third movement of Rapsodie espagnole - and Entre cloches. The bells peal quite aggressively, then reflectively, then joyously. It’s a delightful little piece; not typical Ravel, but an interesting insight into his mind before finally finding his style.

The Rapsodie espagnole is also very fine. A very atmospheric Prélude à la nuit, full of perfume and promise, is followed by a marvellously rhythmic Malagueña, light and fleeting. This is followed by the Habanera from Les sites auriculaires; once again we have sex and the night, with sultry and very colourful playing. The final Feria is a riot of pianism and festivities.

The disk doesn’t end in holidaymaking but in one of Ravel’s darkest works: La Valse. Written as a ballet for Diaghilev, but refused by him, it has gone on to become a staple of the concert repertoire. It’s a view of fin de siècle Vienna, at a grand court ball, and a depiction of the end of the world. This is a truly great performance! The Ashkenazys have the right attitude and they play with a passion and fire. The ending, where four beats tear across three really does make it seem as if it’s all over.

This is outstanding.

— Bob Briggs

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Claude Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer who was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His orchestral works include Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894), Nocturnes (1897–1899), Images (1905–1912), and La mer (1903–1905). His piano works include sets of 24 Préludes and 12 Études. Throughout his career Debussy also wrote mélodies based on a wide variety of poetry, including his own. His works have strongly influenced a wide range of composers including Béla Bartók, Olivier Messiaen, George Benjamin, and the jazz musician Bill Evans.

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Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy. Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended the Paris Conservatoire. After leaving the conservatoire, he found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas and eight song cycles.

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Vladimir Ashkenazy (born 6 July 1937) is a Soviet-born Icelandic pianist and conductor. He studied with Lev Oborin and Boris Zemliansky at the Moscow Conservatory. Ashkenazy won 2nd prize in the 1955 Chopin Piano Competition, 1st prize in the 1956 Queen Elisabeth Competition, and 1st prize in the 1962 Tchaikovsky Competition. He has recorded a wide range of piano repertoire, both solo works and concerti. As a conductor, he has served as principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Czech Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony and the Sydney Symphony.

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Vovka Ashkenazy (born 1961) is a Russian-born pianist and educator, son of Vladimir Ashkenazy. Raised in Reykjavík, he studied piano in Iceland and later at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Since his 1983 London debut with the London Symphony, he has performed internationally with leading orchestras at prestigious venues worldwide. Alongside a successful solo career, he is highly regarded as a chamber musician, frequently collaborating with family members and recording extensively for Decca Records. Ashkenazy is also dedicated to teaching, holding positions at several European music institutions.

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