Hancock vs Ravel

[Paulie55]

What the devil was that abomination on Breakfast this morning? What is the point of improvising the piano solo while the orchestra plays the original, unaltered music?
Why does Radio 3 continue to think it can impress us with these radical recordings? Herbie Hancock is a first-rate jazz musician and should stick to what he does best.
How many people would buy his recording when there are so many magnificent performances of the original work and why does Ravel need such an approach?
I felt the same about the Hilliard Ensemble recording with Jan Garbarek where at first, the result was quite haunting but soon became tiring. Stop it please!!!

[french frank]

How many people would buy his recording when there are so many magnificent performances of the original work and why does Ravel need such an approach?

Well, I would probably run a mile to avoid it myself, but in answer to your question Ravel doesn't 'need it' - since as you say there are many magnificent recordings for those who want one of them. Or six. Not Hancock v Ravel but something different from either, and I can imagine that there are those who are fascinated by the combination.

My personal reaction is the reaction of just one person who is unlikely to hear such a work on Breakfast as I gave up listening to the programme long ago. I'm sad about that.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Breakfast is now an even better excuse for a lie-in.

[cloughie]

What was the Ravel piece in question?

[Tony Halstead]

Breakfast is now an even better excuse for a lie-in.

[doversoul1]

cloughie
According to the playlist:
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G, 2nd Movement

What the devil was that abomination on Breakfast this morning? What is the point of improvising the piano solo while the orchestra plays the original, unaltered music?
Why does Radio 3 continue to think it can impress us with these radical recordings? Herbie Hancock is a first-rate jazz musician and should stick to what he does best.
How many people would buy his recording when there are so many magnificent performances of the original work and why does Ravel need such an approach?
I felt the same about the Hilliard Ensemble recording with Jan Garbarek where at first, the result was quite haunting but soon became tiring. Stop it please!!!

I have long given up listening to those ‘innovative’ arrangements. The excellent early music ensemble L'Arpeggiata has recorded some truly bizarre and, to me, abominable Purcell and Handel. Vivaldi has been ‘done’ to death for artistic or/and commercial reasons. I would still like to argue that this is the matter of principle but in reality, it is the matter of personal taste. As for Breakfast, I certainly would like to believe that the principle still applies but there you are. I can’t remember when I last listened to the programme. Very sad indeed.

[oddoneout]

I didn't hear the introduction so was a bit puzzled at first thinking 'this sounds sort of familiar', then as the 'jazz' element took over I twigged.
It didn't do anything for me, but I was perhaps less annoyed by it than might otherwise have been the case as I'm not a big fan of Ravel. From a personal perspective I find it useful to hear such things if only to have at least a semi-informed view when encountering others who perhaps like them. In terms of whether it works or not I feel that some music copes better than others - baroque and classical - with being pulled about, and have mostly managed to grow out of inherited views about the sacrosanct nature of JSB, but for the most part don't find such manoeuvres add anything to my enjoyment or understanding of the works involved.
Like the OP I found the Hilliard/Gabarek pleasant at first but it quickly palled, and became tiresome when others copied. The wayward Christina Pluhar 'interpretations' I just can't be doing with.
But it's all personal views; I'm not sure it's a case of right or wrong.

[LezLee]

What was the Ravel piece in question?

It was the Piano Concerto in G. It was dreadful. What on earth was the point? I never liked Hilliard/Garbarek but enjoy most of the L’Arpeggiata I’ve heard. What do people feel about Red Priest? I think they’re wonderful but one of my friends is mortally offended by what they do!

[oddoneout]

It was the Piano Concerto in G. It was dreadful. What on earth was the point? I never liked Hilliard/Garbarek but enjoy most of the L’Arpeggiata I’ve heard. What do people feel about Red Priest? I think they’re wonderful but one of my friends is mortally offended by what they do!

I'm not mortally offended by Red Priest I just don't much like their performances - I find them too aggressive and noisy and don't like watching - but that is the excitement that makes them a must for so many people I imagine.

[french frank]

I'm not sure it's a case of right or wrong.

I think I'd be a bit more certain that it's not! Nothing if not consistent, I don't like Garbarek, L'Arpeggiata, Red Priest … I don't object to the attempts but I don't personally like the sound they make. Right or wrong? I don't think so.

[pastoralguy]

I felt the same about the Hilliard Ensemble recording with Jan Garbarek where at first, the result was quite haunting but soon became tiring. Stop it please!!!

Possibly my least favourite recording of anything. I used to turn the radio off when it was played which seemed to be all the time after it was released! I came across the cd in a charity shop for 50p and decided to take it home and listen properly but only ended up hating it more.

[vinteuil]

.

... I loathe the Garbarek - find Red Priest extremely irritating - l' Arpeggiata can be marvellous (I love their tarantella stuff) - but of late I find their work well naff...


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[french frank]

... I loathe the Garbarek - find Red Priest extremely irritating - l' Arpeggiata can be marvellous (I love their tarantella stuff) - but of late I find their work well naff....

Funny that these seem to be versions that catch on with a 'general public' - people not usually into early music or jazz (or opera or classical guitar music or, or or….). Is such an audience drawn into 'authentic' performances of these genres? I rather doubt it. The music is tailored to a potential (large) audience.

[Serial_Apologist]

"The slow movement, Adagio assai, E major, invoplves a leisurely, extended and amazingly free development by the solo piano of one of Ravel's priceless song themes. When praised by Mme Long for its unhurried, natural quality, Ravel is said to have confessed that he wrote it 'two bars at a time,' with frequent references to the Mozart Quintet's larghetto - all of which of course dos not detract one iota from the majesty and beauty of this creation".

From Charles Burr's liner to the 1959 CBS recording of the G Major PC of Leonard Bernstein with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, coupled with that of Shostakovitch's Second PC.

I didn't hear this. Perhaps Herbie Hancock had read somewhere of Ravel's alleged two-bars-at-a-time approach to the movement's composition, concluding that it's improvisatory character tallied with the story but was worth "improving" upon.

[jayne lee wilson]

An improv on the Ravel G major adagio ? Wow, I'd love to hear it... there's a great creative tradition of such things e.g. Uri Caine's take on Beethoven's Diabelli Variations with no less than the Concerto Köln (if it's good enough for them etc...) or his remodellings of Mahler's Songs with his own ensemble, both on Winter & Winter....

Well-known that Mozart (probably never played the same Piano Concerto the same way twice..), Bach etc improvised in their own live music-making all the time... we need much more of it now, and why not on record...

Jan Garbarek's great in the right time & place... gloomy late night, just before bed.....
Just don't overplay them, is all...